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PATRIOTIC AND HEROIC 



ELOQUENCE : 



A BOOK FOR THE 



PATEIOT, STATESMAN, AND STUDENT. 




"I Bpeak to you as American citizens having a voice— and that a potential one— in deciding the 
destiniea of our common country, and as men acknowledging your final respnnsil-ility to God." 

Hon. Salmon P. Chase. 



"America! Home of the free! 

'Tis thy dear starry emblem that holds 
The enchantment that binds us to thee — 

All our fortunes with thine in its folds! 
On the wretch who its honor or glory would pall, 
Shall the lightning-winged vengeance of patriots fall." 

Elliott's Columbia 

! ^ x ' X 






ff 



NEW YORK: "--^J^.S- 

(STJCOESSOB TO W. A. TOWNSEND & CO..) 

46 WALKER STREET, 

1861. • 50 



XX- 29 



t?3 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1S01, 

By JAMES G. GEEGOEY, 

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States, for the 

Southern District of New York. 



1\ 



\. ALVOED, 6TEr.O>TYPKl: \NT> FKINTE1I. 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE. 

Prelude John Savage. 7 

Perpetuity op the American Union Webster. 11 

The United States Flag, 1861 Wallace. 13 

Speech at the Great Union Meeting in Union Square, K T. 

City, 1861 Shaffer. 14 

The New Tear and the Union Prentice. 21 

Duties op American Citizens Chandler. 22 

On Laying the Corner Stone op the Bunker Hill Monument. 

Webster. 24 

The Sword of Bunker Hill Wallace. 26i 

Speech on Presenting a United States Flag Waterlury. 27 

Perpetuity op the Union Rosseau. 28 

Deeds, not Words Field. 29 

Soldier's Dirge G'Rara. 31 

Through Foemen Surrounding 32 

No Secession prom the Union Motley. 32 

Eulogy on General Andrew Jackson B. F. Butler. 35 

The Glory of the Hero and Patriot Moore. 31 

Character op "Warren Magoon. 38 

"Warren's Address Pierpont. 39 

Thr Battle of Lexington Holmes. 40 

Moral and Republican Principles not to be Abandoned. 

Everett. 42 

The Falcon Lowell. 43 

Character op Dandsl Webster Seward. 43 

Ode for the Metropolitan Obsequies op Webster Wallace. 45 

America. . Phillips. 48 

War Questions to Col. C. M. Clay Wallace. 49 

Death of J. Q. Adams Seward. 50 



4 CONTENTS. 

PA«E. 

Rienzi TO the Romans Moore. 51 

Speech op Maobriar to the Scotch Insurgents Scott. 53 

Rebellion to be Put Down — The Nation to be Saved Holt. 54 

Martial Elegy Tyrtozus. 51 

Speech at the Great American Union Meeting, Mat, 1861, in 

Paris, France CM. Clay. 58 

Speech at the Same Meeting Fremont. 61 

Extract from a Speech at the Union Meeting in Union 

Square, Few York, 1861 Dix. 63 

Words for the Hour Otlarson. 64 

Patriotic Duty of the Present Generation Evarts. 65 

Call to Arms Lyon. 66 

The Revolutionary Battle of Eutaw Simms. 67 

"Washington to be Defended — Secession to be Crushed. 

Raymond. 70 

It is Great for our Country to die Percival. 72 

The United States Superior to a Single State MitcheU. 72 

The Mothers of our Eorest Land Gallagher. 75 

Address to the Graduating Class of Columbia College. 

President King. 77 

Commodore Perry after the Battle of Lake Erie. . .Bancroft. 79 

Criminality of Treason K Y. Evening Post. 82 

The American Statesman and Literature 85 

Character of William Penn Duponceau. 86 

Columbia Elliott. 88 

The President of the United States — What he ought to be. 

McLane. 89 

True Dignity Owen Jones. 91 

Character of General Yf infield Scott Headley. 92 

The Patriot's Battle Prayer Prince. 94 

Address to the U. S. House of Representatives Grow. 96 

The Myrtle and Steel Hoffman. 100 

The Fugitive Lieutenant N. T. Ledger. 100 

Decisive Integrity Wirt. 108 

Eulogium on the Captors of Major Andre Raymond. 110 

The National Flag N. T. Ledger. 112 



CONTENTS. 5 

PACE. 

Upward ! Onward ! John H. Bryant. 114 

Our Country Webster. 115 

New England and the Union (1846) Hamlin. 117 

The Charter Oak Prentice. 118 

Character op the Disunionists (1861) Holt. 119 

Prophecy of Freedom Prentice. 123 

Kentucky and the Disunionists (1861) „ Holt. 1 24 

The Same Subject continued Holt. 12* 

Italy Bryant. 13 1 

Extracts from an Address, July 4th, 1861 Jay. 133 

On the Death of Lieutenant Charles G. Hunter, U. S. N. 

Tuel. 138 

Republican Government N. T. Ledger. 140 

Recitative and Song of the Union Bourne. 142 

Ghaeacter of "Washington Ames. 145 

Sword Chant Motherwell. 1 43 

National Recollections the Foundation of National Char- 
acter Everett. 150 

Not Yet Bryant. 153 

Tomb of Washington Joseph W. Savage. 154 

Land of Happy Hearts and Homes W. A. Butler. 157 

Adams and Jefferson Webster. 158 

The Tides Bryant. 160 

Eulogium on A Deceased Patriot Meagher. 161 

George Washington Upham. 163 

Death of Gertrude and the Lament of Outalissi. . . Campbell. 166 
Effects of a Dissolution of the Federal Union. . . .Hamilton. 168 

Freedom's Birth Moses. 172 

Reflections on the Battle of Lexington Everett. 173 

Appeal in Favor of the Union Madison. 175 

In Memory of the Heroic Captain Herndon 177 

Character of Hamilton Ames. 179 

The Cruel Case of Col. Pegram N. Y. Tribune. 1S2 

Extract from a Speech Delivered in the U. S. Senate, July 

27th, 1861 Johnson. 186 

Freedom of the Ancient Israelites Croly. 18"9 



6 CONTENTS. 

PAGE. 

Resistance to Tyranny Henry. 191 

The Liberty Bell Wallace. 194 

The Solemn Duty of the U. S. Government. . Louisville Journal. 196 

"Who is Responsible for the Slavery Agitation? 201 

Truth and Freedom Gallagher. 203 

George Wilkes's Description of the Battle of Bull Run, 

N. T. Ledger. 205 

The Pioneers 0. A. Jones. 20T 

The Men to Make a State : Their Making and their Marks. 

Doane. 209 

The Greek Revolution Henry Clay. 214 

Eulogy on Henry Clay John B. Fry. 218 

"What is Life Drake. 220 

A Sea Fight Cooper. 222 

God Bless our Stars B. F. Taylor. 232 

General Lyon 234 

Burning of a Ship Cooper. 235 

Heroic Speech, 1861 General B. F. Butler. 248 

War Poem Croly. 251 

The Constitution Bunce. 252 

Sanguinaria Canadensis ^ Benton. 255 

Extract from a Speech on the Extension of Slavery. 

W. H. Fry. 256 

Revolutionary Story Alice Gary. 25t 

Voice of the Northern Women Phebe Cary. 260 

Injustice of Secession President Lincoln. 261 

L'Envoi — A Psalm of the Union Wallace. 263 



PRELUDE. 



Washington.* — John Savage. 

Art in its mighty privilege receives 

Painter and painted in its bonds forever ; 
A girl by Raphael in his glory lives — 
A "Washington unto his limner gives 

The Ages' love to crown his best endeavor. 

The German Emperor, with whose counterpart 
The gorgeous Titian made the world acquainted, 

Boasted himself immortal by the art : 

But he who on thy features cast his heart 
Was made immortal by the head he painted I 

For thou before whose tinted shade I bow, 

Wert sent to show the wise of every nation 
How a young world might leave the axe and plough 
To die for Truth ! So great, so loved wert thou, 
That he who touched thee won a reputation. 

Written upon contemplating Stuart's portrait in the l$oston Athenaeum. 



The steady fire that battled in thy breast, 

Lit up our gloom with radiance, good though gory ; 

Like some red sun which the dull earth caressed 

Into a wealthy adoration, blest 

To be its glory's great reflected glory. 

Thou — when the earthly heaven of man's soul — 

The heaven of home, of liberty, of honor — 
Shuddered with darkness — didst the clouds uproll 
And burst such light upon the nation's dole 
That every state still feels thy breath upon her. 

Could I have seen thee in the council — bland, 

Firm as a rock, but as deep stream thy manner ; 
Or when at trembling Liberty's command, 
Facing grim havoc like a flag-staff, stand, 

And squadrons rolling round thee like a banner ! 

Could I have been with thee on Princeton's morn ! 

Or swelled with silence in the midnight muster ; 
Beheld thee ever, every fate adorn — 
Or on retreat, or winged victory borne — 

The warrior throbbing with the sage's lustre : 

Could I have shouted in the wild acclaim 

That rent the sky o'er Germantown asunder ; 

Or when, like cataract, 'gainst the sheeted flame 

You dashed, and chilled the victor-shout to shame 

On Monmouth's day of palsy-giving thunder: 



Could I have followed theo through town and camp ! 

Fought where you led, and heard the same drums rattle ; 
Charged with a wild, but passion-steadied tramp, 
And witnessed, rising o'er death's ghastly damp, 

The stars of empire through the clouds of battle 1 — 

Oh ! to have died thus 'neath thy hero-gaze, 

And won a smile, my bursting youth would rather, 

Than to have lived with every other praise, 

Saving the blessing of those epic days 

When you blest all, and were the nation's father. 

The autumn sun caresses Vernon's tomb, 

Whose presence doth the country's honor leaven : 

Two suns they are, that dissipate man's gloom ; 

For one's the index to Earth's freeborn bloom, 
The other to our burning hope in Heaven 1 

Thy dust may moulder in the hollow rock ; 

But every day thy soul makes some new capture 1 
Nations unborn will swell thy thankful flock, 
And Fancy tremble that she cannot mock 

Thy history's Truth that will enchant with rapture. 

How vain the daring to compute in words 
The height of homage that the heart would render I 

And yet how proud — to feel no speech affords 

Harmonious measure to the subtle chords 

That fill the soul beneath thy placid splendor 1 

1* 



PATRIOTIC AND HEROIC ELOQUENCE. 



Perpetuity of the American Union. — Hon. Daniel 
Webster. 

I profess, sir, in my career hitherto, to have kept 
steadily in view the prosperity and honor of the whole 
country, and the preservation of our federal Union. It 
is to that Union we owe our safety at home, and our con- 
sideration and dignity abroad. It is to that Union that 
we are chiefly indebted for whatever makes us most proud 
of our country. That Union we reached only by the dis- 
cipline of our virtues in the severe school of adversity. 
It had its origin in the necessities of disordered finance, 
prostrate commerce, and ruined credit. Under its benign 
influences these great interests awoke, as if from the dead, 
and sprang forth with newness of life. Every year of its 
duration has teemed with fresh proofs of its utility and 
its blessings ; and although our territory has stretched 
out wider and wider, and our population spread farther 
and farther, they have not outrun its protection, or its 
benefits. It has been to us all a copious fountain of na- 
tional, social and personal happiness. 

I have not allowed myself, sir, to look beyond the 
Union, to see what might lie hidden in the dark recess 
behind. I have not coolly weighed the chances of pre- 
serving liberty, when the bonds that unite us together 
shall be broken asunder. I have not accustomed my- 
self to hang over the precipice of disunion, to see whether 
with my short sight I can fathom the depth of the abyss 



12 PATRIOTIC AND HEROIC ELOQUENCE. 

below ; nor could I regard him as a safe counsellor in the 
affairs of this government, whose thoughts should be 
mainly bent on considering not how the Union should 
be best preserved, but how tolerable might be the con- 
dition of the people when it shall be broken up and de- 
stroyed. 

While the Union lasts, we have high, exciting, gratify- 
ing prospects spread out before us for us and our children. 
Beyond that I seek not to penetrate the veil. God grant 
that in my day, at least, that curtain may not rise. God 
grant that on my vision may be never opened what lies 
behind. When my eyes shall be turned to behold, for 
the last time, the sun in heaven, may I not see him shin- 
ing on the broken and dishonored fragments of a once 
glorious Union ; on states dissevered, discordant, bellig- 
erent ; on a land rent with civil feuds, or drenched, it 
may be, in fraternal blood ! Let their last feeble and 
lingering glance, rather, behold the gorgeous ensign of 
the republic, now known and honored throughout the 
earth, still full high advanced, its arms and trophies 
streaming in their original lustre, not a stripe erased or 
polluted, nor a single star obscured — bearing for its 
motto no such miserable interrogatory as, What is all 
this worth? nor those other words of delusion and folly, 
Liberty first, and Union afterward y but everywhere, 
spread all over in characters of living light, blazing on 
all its ample folds, as they float over the sea and over the 
land, and in every wind under the whole heavens, that 
other sentiment, dear to every true American heart, 
Liberty and Union, now and forever, one and in- 
separable ! 



PATRIOTIC AND HEROIC ELOQUENCE. 13 

The United States Flag — 1861. — William Ross 
Wallace. 

It shall not sever I No ! as soon 

The sister-stars by tempest-wrack 
Shall be divided in their sky, 

And darkle into chaos back. 
Flag of tbe valiant and the tried, 
Where Marion fought and Warren died! 
Flag of the mountain and the lake I 

Of rivers rolling to the sea 
Iu that broad grandeur fit to make 

The symbols of eternity! 
fairest flag I dearest land ! 

Who shall your banded children sever ? 
God of our fathers ! here we stand, 
A true, a free, a fearless band, 
Heart pressed to heart, hand linked in hand, 

And swear that flag shall float forever ! 

StilL radiant banner of the free ! 
The nations turn with hope to thee : 
And when thy mighty shadow falls 
Along the armory's trophied walls, 
The ancient,trumpets long for breath ; 

The dinted sabres fiercely start 
To vengeance from each clanging sheath, 

As if they sought some traitor's heart ! 

sacred banner of the brave ! 

standard of ten thousand ships ! 
guardian of Mount Vernon's grave ! 

Come, let us press thee to our lips ! — 
There is a heaving of the rocks — 
New England feels the patriot-shocks ; 
There is a heaving of the lakes — 
New York, with all the West, awakes ; 
And, lo ! on high the glorious shade 

Of Washington smites back the gloom, 
And points unto these words arrayed 

In fire around his tomb : 



14 PATRIOTIC AND HEKOIO ELOQUENCE. 

"Americans! your fathers shed 

Their blood to rear the Union's * fane ; 
For this that fearless banner spread 

On many a gory plain ! 
Americans ! let no one dare, 

On mountain, valley, prairie, flood, 
By hurling down that temple there, 

To desecrate that blood ! 
The right shall live, while faction dies; 

All traitors draw a fleeting breath ! 
But patriots drink from God's own eyes, 

Truth's light that conquers death ! " 

Then, dearest flag, and dearest land ! 

"Who shall your banded children sever? 
God of our fathers I here we stand, 
A true, a free, a fearless band, 
Heart pressed to heart, hand linked in hand, 

And swear that flag shall float forever! 



Speech at the Great Union Meeting in Union 
Square, New York City, 1861. — Hon. Chauncey 
Shaffer. 

'Tis done — the climax of delusion has been attained, 
and " madness rules the hour." 

In a time of profound peace and unwonted prosperity, 
when from the coasts of Maine athwart a continent to 
the placid waters of old Pacific, the open hand of the 
benevolent God has filled the nation with profusion ; 
while the choicest treasures of ocean and of earth are 
seeking our shores, when our peace-propagating com- 
merce has met a welcome reception in ports for ages 
closed against the ingress of civilization and Christian- 
ity ; and when ambassadors from afar, and even those 
sprung from the loins of kings, and whose nursing- 

* 2Tow 'pure the spirit in that form enshrined. — Gov. Chase. 



PATRIOTIC AND HEROIC ELOQUENCE. 15 

motbei-s queens are, cross oceans to pay their willing 
devotion to the wisdom of our institutions and the 
grandeur of our youthful proportions ; in this young- 
republic, this asylum of the oppressed and home of the 
enterprising, this " land of the free," this " home of the 
brave," where liberty herself sits enthroned — at a time 
too when the genius of "American liberty," civil and 
religious, is permeating all lands, founding in the seats 
of ancient empire republics modelled after our own 
"model republic;" when the Turk is becoming Chris- 
tian, when Chinese walls are crumbling before the shock 
of an on-marching civilization, when serfdom is blossom- 
ing into manhood, when liberty, having crossed moun- 
tains and oceans hand in hand with Christianity, is mak- 
ing the circuit of the globe, and with the trump of jubi- 
lee seems about to usher in the millennial morn — here in 
this our own republic, not yet having made the circle of 
a century, what sights do we see ? What sounds do we 
hear ? Why, the highest tribunal of the republic, in 
emulation of the infidelity that ushered in " the French 
revolution," have adjudged and decreed " that God 
hath not made of one blood all nations of men for to 
dwell on all the face of the earth." And further, that 
" God hath not determined the times before appointed 
and the bounds of their habitation ;" and by just deduc- 
tion, that Africa is not one of the " four quarters of the 
globe," and that the African is not a man entitled to 
" life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness ;" while, as a 
legitimate consequence of this decree, we hear the vice- 
president of the rebellious Confederacy proclaiming that 
" in forming the old constitution our fathers were in a 
great error. They believed slavery wrong, and of course 
intended it should not last, and framed the old constitu- 
tion wrong to sui« their wrong creed. The South [mean- 
ing the oligarchs] believe slavery right and to be per- 
petuated. Our new constitution is based on African 



16 PATRIOTIC AND HEROIC ELOQUENCE. 

slavery as right, and is therefore the best constitution on 
earth." Hear this, O Africa, and, as you " stretch your 
hands to God," pray for the freedom of the Arab of the 
desert rather than the liberty of " the Confederate Re- 
public." 

We see time-honored covenants repealed, lovers of 
the Union expiating their crime on the scaffold, wo- 
men imprisoned for teaching the Bible, Christ's am- 
bassadors slain with their hands upon the altar, vowing 
eternal fidelity to God, " the constitution, and the laws," 
while others (of whom the Southern Confederacy is not 
worthy) are wandering in exile, destitute, afflicted, tor- 
mented, while others still " have trial of cruel moekings 
and scourgings, yea, moreover, of bond and imprison- 
ment." We behold the "merciless Indian savages," whose 
known rule of warfare is an undistinguished destruction 
of all ages, sexes, and conditions, summoned to a co-op- 
eration with the rebellious sons of treason ; yet let us 
hope that they will modify the chivalrous mode of war- 
fare practised by " the Confederate chivalry." 

We see and hear the decree of treason proclaimed in 
seven confederate states, that our beneficent constitution 
is to be destroyed, our capital sacked, while treason, sit- 
ting enthroned amidst the ruins of a nation's temple, 
surrounded by the sentinel furies of rebellion, shall de- 
cree the destruction of liberty and law, of commerce 
and science, of the freedom of the press and of speech, 
the hopeless bondage of the African and the serfdom of 
the " poor unfortunate white man " (for think not that 
the lust of tyrants is satiated by the color of a skin), and 
the eternal "setting up of the abomination of desola- 
tion" in the holy place where Washington and Jefferson, 
the Adamses and a Jackson stood ! 

We hear the thunders of artillery proclaiming to the 
Spartan band within Sumter's walls that the decrees of 
treason are being enforced by the last argument of 



PATRIOTIC AND HEROIC ELOQTTENCE. 17 

kings ; while all around the Gulf of Mexico, the once 
golden bowl of a world's commerce, martial sounds are 
heard, blended with the warwhoop of the savage, and 
upon the bosom of that gulf the pirate illustrates the 
maxim that " dead men tell no tales." Sepoys of India, 
send your ambassadors to " the Confederate States of 
America," that they may perfectly acquire the art of 
Sepoy warfare ! Send them not to " the aboriginal 
American." 

It is unnecessary to declare "the causes of these 
things." The cause of causes is known. The fathers 
are gone, and their children have held the truth in un- 
righteousness. The fathers knew their duty, and did it 
as far as they could. The sous have not done their duty. 
The fathers decreed human slavery a curse, a cause of 
war against which all the attributes of Jehovah pro- 
claimed unceasing hostility. The sons say : " Human 
bondage is the chief corner-stone of our republic." The 
fathers were filled with the Anglo-Saxon idea of liberty. 
The sons with the Norman idea of feudalism. 

Having held the truth in unrighteousness, they have 
become vain in their imaginations, their foolish heart is 
darkened, and they are given over to a reprobate mind, 
and are filled with a vile ambition, wickedness, covetous- 
ness, maliciousness, deceitfulness, and malignity, together 
with the whole hell-brood of passions essential to make 
up that most hated word, "treason." 

Without assuming to sit in judgment upon my fellow 
man, I cannot help asking, have not the authors of this 
great rebellion already proved themselves " despiteful, 
proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, without under- 
standing, covenant-breakers, without fraternal affection 
[else why do they daily put to death their "kith and kin" 
for no other crime than fidelity to the constitution and 
the Union], implacable, unmerciful ?" 

The necessity of the case requires a remedy. The 



18 PATRIOTIC AND HEKOIC ELOQUENCE. 

many, who in these treasonable states have not bent the 
knee at the hateful shrine of discord, demand a remedy 
speedy and thorough ; they who flee from the land of 
their birth and the home of their childhood demand the 
application of a remedy. Commerce and science, law 
and religion, those who in distant lands look with long- 
ing eyes to the Canaan of their hopes beyond the ocean 
flood, demand the speedy application of that remedy. 
The dignity of human nature, the voice that speaks from 
many a revolutionary battlefield, from Massachusetts to 
Georgia, voices from Mount Vernon, from Monticello, 
from Ashland, and the Hermitage, demand hi the great 
name of " the Eternal" that the remedy be applied so 
that " the Union shall be preserved," and her banner 
proudly float, as in former days, " by sea and by land, 
not a single stripe erased, nor a star obscured," while the 
claims of eternal justice, as well as the voice of Him who 
gave us this goodly land to inherit, unite in the same 
demand, even though in the application of that remedy 
war should promulgate the Lord's fast, " even the break- 
ing of bonds and letting the oppressed go free." 

Ordinarily, the remedy is to be determined by refer- 
ence to the cause of the disease. Not so here ; for the 
cause dates far backward, beyond merely the sowing of 
tares by a Calhoun and his disciples. It strikes back to 
the darkness of the strictly feudal ages. But, admitting 
that the cause dates no farther backward than the gloomy 
year of 1832, the question still arises, "Plow can the evil 
be removed ?" 

When we reflect that we are now reaping the harvest 
of false principles sown by " the great architect of ruin ;" 
that human slavery is right and not wrong, a blessing 
and not a curse; that states at their option have the 
right to sever the bands that bind them in fidelity to the 
Union, and " shoot madly from their spheres," and that in 
still later times, the doctrine has been promulgated and 



1-ATKlOTlU AND HEROIC ELOQUENCE. 19 

urged upon our brethren of the Confederate States (I 
speak of the masses, and not of the instigators), until 
they believe that their brethren of " the North " are no 
longer brethren, but enemies intent upon their political 
and social extinction ; and -when I further reflect that 
peace and truth have no power to invade that soil to cor- 
rect that error, and prevent " the immortality of the lie," 
I am compelled to declare it as my firm conviction that 
force, physical force, the force of war, and that alone, is 
the only remedy ; and, terrible as is the thought in this 
<;ase, that " without the shedding of blood there can be 
no remission," it is nevertheless true ; for treason is an 
awful word, as well as an awful crime. 

The war, then, inaugurated by the enemies of our 
government must go on ; the slumbers of Mount Vernon 
must be disturbed by the thunders of artillery. The 
soil of " the mother of states and of statesmen" must be 
drenched with fraternal blood ; the head of the serpent 
infolded in Sumpter's flag must be bruised ; and that 
city which was first to break the peace of the nation, by 
the first overt act of treason, must return to her alle- 
giance, or from her smoking ruins the column must rise, 
bearing the inscription, " Charleston was," and, if need 
be, the fate of Charleston must be the fate of all other 
cities hi like manner offending against our government. 
And that fate must be speedy — unnecessary delay in this 
emergency is almost treason itself. Think not that I 
say this thoughtlessly, or without due consideration. 
War, and most of all, civil war, is naught but horrors on 
horror's head accumulating. Ordinarily war arrests the 
wheels of civilization and hurls earth backward toward 
the gloom of the dark ages. 

This is eminently true of unjust wars. But this law 
is not universal. Wars have urged onward civilization, 
liberty and Christianity. War has advanced the pur- 
poses of " Him who niaketh the wrath of man to praise 



20 PATRIOTIC AND HEROIC ELOQUENCE. 

Him." The battles of Marathon, Plataea and Salaruis, 
not only rolled back the tide of Asiatic barbarism, but 
developed the heroic qualities of the republican Greek. 

Leonidas and his three hundred fell at Thermopylae, 
but how much benefit have law and government derived 
from the inscription, " Go, stranger, and declare to the 
Lacedaemonians that we died here in obedience to their 
divine laws ?" The wars of Napoleon the First filled Eu- 
rope with more liberal ideas ; while " the late Crimean 
war," which turned the cheek of commerce pale, as North- 
ern came in collision with the civilization of Western Eu- 
rope, opened the door of an empire for the ingress of 
religious liberty. And Magenta and Solferino are fol- 
lowed by like results in the land once "peeled and torn." 

And may we not derive benefit from even this fratri- 
cidal war ? My faith dictates an affirmative response. 
This opening strife may open our eyes to a contempla- 
tion of the sublime destiny to which a benevolent God 
invites us ; may correct our characteristic faidts ; may 
develop and expand our latent virtues ; may teach us 
that ours is a higher destiny than to " go to, and put 
money in our purse ;" may teach us other lessons than 
those of exultation over the magnitude of that republic 
whose shores are laved by two oceans ; may impart to 
us a purer patriotism ; may arrest a tendency supposed 
to exist amongst us of dishonesty in legislation and par- 
tisanship in the administration of the law ; may teach us 
the value of constitutional liberty, by the evils which 
flow from anarchy and rebellion ; may teach all parties 
in our land the duty of justice and charity in judging 
each other ; may imprimate the power of our govern- 
ment, for war as well as for peace, upon the minds of 
other nations ; and may teach one and all, at home and 
abroad, the power of this government to punish crime as 
well as to protect virtue ; and thus, like the mountain 
oak bufleted bv the storm, whose roots take a finne ■ 



PATRIOTIC AND HEROIC ELOQUENCE. 21 

liold on " the old foundation," a love for our noble con- 
stitution, our equal and just laws, for all parts, sections 
and divisions of our Union, may take a more lasting hold 
upon the nation's heart. 

Nor let it be considered as the least of these advan- 
tages, the national degradation from which the coming 
war will save us. I mean an independent Southern 
slave Confederacy, extending from ocean to ocean, from 
the heart of the temperate zone to the Isthmus of 
Darien, marching in the bloody track of aggressive war, 
devastating, conquering and swallowing up the islands of 
the seas ; from collision with the other powers of Chris- 
tendom ; from further civil wars between " the United" 
and " the Confederate States ;" from the revival of the 
African slave-trade in all its horrors, and from the loath- 
ing contempt of indignant civilization everywhere. 



The New Year and the Union. — George D. Prentice. 

God has made 
A wilderness of worlds ; His will and strong 
Creative spirit shook ten thousand worlds, 
Like golden dewdrops, from his waving wing, 
To roll in beauty through abysmal space, 
And chant the chorus of his love divine. 
He made the milky- way to span the sky, 
A pearly bow of promise, every drop 
That sparkles there a singing, shining world 1 
He woke the music of the Northern Harp, 
The wild weird chiming of the Pleiades — 
And bade the arches of a southern sphere 
Reverberate their hallelujahs high. 

The mighty One 
Who sweeps the lyre of ages, and commands 
The praises of ten thousand singing worlds, 
Creates the stars of Union, and attunes 



22 PATRIOTIC AND HEROIC ELOQUENCE. 

The lofty heart of liberty 1 . . . shall we, 
Proud children of the brave, the free, 
Behold our banner, blazoned by the breath 
Of glory, sullied by a slave ? — our stars, 
Of Union tossing wildly to and fro 
Upon the wave of faction, as they were 
But shining shadows, not eternal orbs, 
Forever circling through the boundless heaven 
Of everlasting purpose ?• — or shall we 
Hear dissolution sounded, and forbear 
To brand the traitor hearts that dare forget 
The bond for which our fathers fought and bled ? 
Cursed be the traitors — doubly, trebly doomed — 
The pit of Discord for her victims yawns, 
Then, back recoiling, shudders to receive 
Their hearts — a fouler and a fiercer hell ! 

God save the Union ! — Give the dawning year 

This proud baptismal anthem — let its last 

Dissolving sigh be — Union undissolved! 

ISTew states, with starry emblems, one by one, 

Come stealing through the future's twilight dim, 

Like orbs of evening from its dusky sky, 

To take their place at last with those that tread 

Their high, unwearied and unwearying round 

Before the golden gates and battlements 

Of Paradise. The harp of Liberty 

Shall sound amain, till Death himself expire ; 

Till God has made us free, immortally, 

And Time is dust upon his broken lyre I 

Thrice raptured moment ! — if all-blessed like thee 

Are heaven's bright centuries, how brief -will be 

Its countless ages of eternity 1 



Duties of American Citizens. — P. W. Chandler. 

The motives to moral action press upon the American 
citizen with unusual force at the present time. Upon us 
the hopes of man are resting in every part of the world. 
Wherever humanity toils for a scanty subsistence ; wher- 



PATRIOTIC AND IIEROIC ELOQUENCE. 23 

ever the iron hand of oppression falls upon the people ; 
•wherever the last of liberty is dead — 

-"From the burning plains 



Where Lybian monsters yell, 
From the most gloomy glens 
Of Greenland's sunless climes, 
To where the golden fields 
Of fertile England spread 
Their harvest to the sky" — 

" the voices of the past and the future seem to blend in 
one sound of warning and entreaty, addressing itself not 
only to the general but to the individual ear, calling upon 
us, each and all, to be faithful to the trust which God 
has committed to our hands." 

Let the American citizen feel the responsibilities of his 
position, with a determination that the hopes of the world 
shall not be disappointed. Nor let him mistake the na- 
ture of his duties. Many men acknowledge our evils and 
our dangers, but seek in vain for the remedy. They are 
ready for any sacrifice, but earnestly inquire when and 
where it is be made. We eagerly seize upon any excuse 
for the non-performance of duty. " Give me where to 
stand," cried the ancient philosopher, " and I will move 
the world." "Find where to stand!" shouts the modern 
reformer. " Stand where you are," is the voice of rea- 
son and religion. It is not upon some great and distant 
enterprise that our duty will call us. It is not in the 
tented field that our services will be needed. The bat- 
tle-ground is in our own hearts ; the enemy in our 
own bosoms. And when the passions of men are sub- 
dued ; when selfishness is purged from humanity ; when 
anger is entirely restrained ; when jealousy, hatred, and 
revenge are unknown — then, and then only, is the vic- 
tory won. 

Let no man merge his identity in the masses, nor for- 
get his individual responsibility to his country and his 



24 PATRIOTIC AND HEROIC ELOQUENCE. 

God. Is his position lowly and obscure ? Let him re- 
member that eveiy one exerts an influence, for good or 
for evil, and no one is so humble as not to need the pro- 
tection of a good government. Is he called to places of 
responsibility and trust ? Let him bear his honors meek- 
ly but firmly, yielding nothing to the blandishments of 
power or the acclamations of the multitude. He may 
be hurled from his station by those who placed him in it, 
and the voices of praise, which were once sweet music 
to his ears, may be changed to execrations. Let him lay 
down his power in dignity and silence ; as he has filled a 
high place without pride, he may fill a low one without 
humiliation. And if, in the performance of duty, sterner 
trials await him ; if misrule and lawless faction should 
select him as a victim ; let him calmly die, remembering 
that the best and the bravest, earth's noblest children, 
have drunk the cup of degradation to the dregs, and 
better men than he have been sacrificed by popular vio- 
lence. In whatever position he may be placed, wher- 
ever his lot may be cast, let him maintain the integrity 
of his soul. 

" This above all : to thine own self be true ; 
And it must follow, as the night the day, 
Thou canst not then be false to any man." 



On Laying- the Corner-stone of the Bunker Hill 
Monument. — Daniel Webster. 

Let it not be supposed that our object is to perpetuate 
national hostility, or even to cherish a mere military 
spirit. It is higher, purer, nobler. We consecrate our 
work to the spirit of national independence, and we wish 
that the light of peace may rest upon it forever. We 
rear a memorial of our conviction of that unmeasured 



PATRIOTIC AND HEROIC ELOQUENCE. 25 

benefit Avhich has been conferred on our land, and of the 
happy influences which have been produced, by the same 
events, on the general interests of mankind. We come, 
as Americans, to mark a spot which must forever be 
dear to us and our posterity. We wish that whosoever, 
in all coming time, shall turn his eye hither, may behold 
that the place is not undistinguished where the first great 
battle of the revolution was fought. We wish that this 
structure may proclaim the magnitude and importance 
of that event to every class and every age. We wish 
that infancy may learn the purpose of its erection from 
maternal lips, and that weary and withered age may be- 
hold it, and be solaced by the recollections which it sug- 
gests. We wish that labor may look up here, and be 
proud, in the midst of its toil. We wish that, in those 
days of disaster, which, as they come on all nations, must 
be expected to come on us also, desponding patriotism 
may turn its eyes hitherward, and be assured that the 
foundations of our national power still stand strong. 
We wish that this column, rising toward heaven among 
the pointed spires of so many temples dedicated to God, 
may contribute also to produce, in all minds, a pious 
feeling of dependence and gratitude. We wish finally, 
that the last object on the sight of him who leaves his 
native shore, and the first to gladden his who revisits it, 
may be something which shall remind him of the liberty 
and glory of his country. Let it rise, till it meet the sun 
in his coming ; let the earliest light of the morning gild 
it, and parting day linger and play on its summit. 
2 



26 PATEIOTIC AND HBEOIC ELOQUENCE. 

The Sword of Bunkeb Hill. — William Boss 
Wallace. 

'"76 IS FOREVER TO BE SUNS." — AnOTl. 

Hk lay upon his dying bed, 

His eye was growing dim, 
When, with a feeble voice he called, 

His weeping son to him : 
" Weep not, my boy," the veteran said, 

" I bow to heaven's high will, 
But quickly from yon antlers bring, 

The sword of Bunker Hill." 

The sword was brought ; the soldier's eye 

Lit with a sudden flame ; 
And as he grasped the ancient blade, 

He murmured Warren's name ; 
Then said, " My boy, I leave you gold, 

But what is richer still, 
I leave you, mark me, mark me, now, 

The sword of Bunker Hill. 

" ' Twas on that dread, immortal day, 

I dared the Briton's band, 
A captain raised this blade on me, 

I tore it from his hand ; 
And while the glorious battle raged, 

It lightened Freedom's will ; 
For, boy, the God of Freedom's blessed 

The sword of Bunker Hill. 

"Oh! keep the sword," his accents broke — 

A smile, and he was dead ; 
But his wrinkled hand still grasped the blade, 

Upon that dying bed. 
The son remains, the sword remains, 

Its glory growing still, 
And twenty millions bless the sire 

And sword of Bunker Hill. 



PATRIOTIC AND HEROIC ELOQUENCE. " 27 



Speech on presenting a United States Flag (in 
New York) to the Third Eegiment of Maine 
Volunteers, June 6th, 1861. — S. L. Waterbury, 
Esq. 

Men of Maine — citizens of the Union ! - The time for 
discussion is past. Open rebellion has trampled upon 
our constitution. We have the issue, and in this state 
men's minds are one. We have laid aside our partisan 
wranglings and we have sworn, as the Lord liveth, that 
treason shall be crushed if the Carolinas be a forest of 
gibbets. My friends, the men of Maine resident in this 
city have desired to bid you welcome, and almost in the 
same breath, farewell. They wish to give you as they 
part, a token that shall speak of their brotherhood. Each 
mother has given to her boy in your ranks that fittest 
pledge of a mother's love, her Bible. Each dear one 
has given some pledge that speaks of softer and sweeter 
hours. Your brethren in this hour of battle would give 
you a strong man's gift — your country's flag. That flag 
shall be your guardian. ' Its starry eyes shall look upon 
you in watchful love ; its blended stripes shall stream 
above you with protection. It is the flag of history. 
Those thirteen stripes tell the story of our colonial strug- 
gle, of the days of '76. They speak of the savage wil- 
derness, of old Independence Hall, of Valley Forge and 
Yorktown. Those stars tell the story of our nation's 
growth, how it has come from weakness to strength, 
from thirteen states to thirty-four, until its gleam in the 
sunrise over the forests of Maine crimsons the sunset's 
dying beams on the golden sands of California. Let not 
the story of the flag be folded now and lost forever. 
Wherever your axe has rung, the school-house has been 
reared alongside the hut of the fisherman and the pioneer. 
Maine is the child of Massachusetts, and hi your hearts 



28 PATRIOTIC AND HEROIC ELOQUENCE. 

flows the blood of the old Bay State. Soldiers ! I know 
that every heart gives an eager response to those which 
the Massachusetts man uttered as he fell stricken by a 
Baltimore mob: "All hail to the stars and stripes!" 
We give this flag to you, and with it we give you our 
prayers, and not ours alone, for as the loved home circle 
gathers far in. the Pine-Tree State, gray-haired fathers 
and loving mothers will speak in prayer the name of 
their boy. Sir, in behalf of the sons of Maine in this 
city, I give you this flag. Guard it as a woman guards 
her honor, as children guard the ashes of their father. 
That flag shall float in triumph. That flag shall hover 
with more than mother's love over your dead. We hear 
to-day, above the sound of conflict, the voice of the arch- 
angel crying : " Victory is on the side of liberty, victory 
is on the side of law." With unbroken ranks may 
your command march beneath its folds. God bless you ! 
Farewell ! 



Perpetuity of the Union. — Senator JSosseau, of 
Kentucky. 

Mr. Speaker, I am sick and tired of all this gabble 
about irritation over the exercise by others of their 
undoubted right, and I say once for all, to you secession 
gentlemen, that we Union men know our rights, and 
intend to maintain them ; and if you intend to get irri- 
tated about it, why — get irritated. Snuff and snort 
yourselves into a rage ; go into spasms if you will ; die 
if you wish to. What right have you to get irritated 
because we claim equal rights and equality with you ? 
We are for peace ; we desire no war, and deprecate 
collision. All we ask is — peace. We do not wish to 
hurt you, and do not intend that you shall injure us if we 
can help it. We beg of you to let us live in peace under 



PATRIOTIC AND HEROIC ELOQUENCE. 29 

the good old government of our fathers. We only ask 
that. "Why keep us ever on the alert watching you, to 
prevent you from enslaving us by a destruction of that 
government '? 

The gentleman says, " it is already destroyed." No, 
sir ! The Union will never be dissolved. We may have 
much suffering ; we may endure many calamities. War, 
pestilence and famine may befall us ; our good old Ken- 
tucky may be drenched in blood, but the Union will 
never, never be dissolved. 

Our government, constitutionally administered, is en- 
titled to our support, no matter who administers it. If 
we will not support it, and yet enjoy its blessings, in 
Heaven's name let us not war against it. But who can 
look an honest man in the face while professing neu- 
trality, yet secretly and traitorously warring against 
it ? For one, sir, I will have none of it. Away with it ! 
Let us be men, honest men, or pretend to be nothing 
but vagabonds. 

May God in his mercy save our glorious republic ! 



Deeds, Not Words.* — Hon. David Dudley Field. 

This is not a time for words but for deeds. Our Union 
is assailed ; that Union which was created after so many 
years of patient labor, of common suffering and common 
glory. Our constitution is defied; that constitution 
which Washington, Franklin, Madison, Hamilton and 
their compatriots made, and which has served us so well 
in peace and war. Our liberties are menaced; those 
liberties which we inherited from our brave and suffering 
fathers, and which we received as an inheritance to be 

* Delivered at the great Union meeting held in New York, 1S61, 



30 PATRIOTIC AND HEROIC ELOQUENCE. 

transmitted intact to our children. The symbol of our 
country's strength and honor — that flag which our coun- 
trymen have home over so many lands and seas, has 
been insulted and trampled. Our fortresses, arsenals, 
mints, custom-houses, hospitals, have been seized. The 
roads to our national capital have been obstructed, and 
our own troops, marching to its succor, molested and 
stopped ; every form of contumely and insult has been used 
toward us. The foundations of government and society 
are rocking around us. Truly, my fellow-citizens, this is 
no time for words — we must act, act now, act together, or 
we are lost. This is no occasion to inquire into the 
causes of this awful state of things. All hands, all hearts, 
all thoughts, should be concentrated upon the one great 
object of saving our country, our Union, our constitution 
— I had almost said, our civilization. If we fail in this 
great emergency, if we allow a single source of discord 
to intrude into our councils, if we do not give to our 
glorious land, in this hour of its peril, our substance, our 
labors, and our blood, we shall prove ourselves most de- 
generate children. A great conspiracy has been forming 
and extending for many years to overthrow this govern- 
ment; and people have only now believed its existence; it 
was something so monstrous as to be incredible, till an 
armed rebellion has overcome seven states, and seems to 
be spreading over more ; a military despotism has ob- 
tained control of eight millions of people, and is knock- 
ing at the gates of the capital. Therefore arm your- 
selves, for this contest is to be decided by arras ; let every 
man arm himself. None capable of bearing arms can be 
spared. It is not thirty thousand that this state must 
get ready, but three hundred thousand. Arm yourselves 
by land and sea ; prepare for the worst ; rally to the sup- 
port of the government; give your counsel and your 
strength to the constituted authorities whom the votes 
of the people and the laws of the land have placed in 



PATRIOTIC AND HEROIC ELOQUENCE. 31 

power. Never give up. Never despair. Never shrink. 
And from this darkness and gloom, from the smoke and 
flame of battle, we shall, with God's blessing, come out 
purified as by fire, our love of justice increased, the 
foundations of our institutions more firmly cemented, 
and the blessings of liberty more certainly secured to 
ourselves and our posterity. Every motive that can in- 
fluence men is present to us this day — love of honor and 
love of right, the history of the heroic past, the vast in- 
terests of the present, and the future of all the millions 
that for ao-es shall inhabit this continent. 



Soldier's DrRGE.* — Colonel O'Hara 

The muffled drum's sad roll has beat, 

The soldier's last tattoo ; 
No more on life's parade shall meet, 

That brave and faUen few. 
On Fame's eternal camping-ground, 

Their silent tents are spread ; 
• And glory guards with solemn round 

The bivouac of the dead. 

No rumor of the foe's advance 

Now swells upon the wind ; 
No troubled thought at midnight haunts 

Of loved ones left behind ; 
No vision of the morrow's strife 

The warrior's dream alarms — 
No braying horn, nor screaming fife, 

At dawn shall call to arms. 

Rest on, embalmed and sainted dead, 

Dear as the blood ye gave ; 
No impious footstep here shall tread 

The herbage of your grave. 

* On the reinterment in the cemetery of Frankfort, Ky., of the brave Kentnck- 
ians who fell at the battle of Buena Vista. 



32 PATRIOTIC AND HEROIC ELOQUENCE. 

Nor shall your glory be forgot, 
While Fame her record keeps, 

Or Honor points the hallowed spot 
Where Valor proudly sleeps. 



Through Foemen Surrounding. 

Through foemen surrounding, 
Our war-steeds are bounding; 
The trumpets are sounding 

That call to the fight : 
Let Liberty's chorus 
Eise grandly before us : 
The God who rules o'er us, 

"Will stand by the right ! 

Shall we meanly sever 
From Liberty ? — never ! 
Shall we suffer ever 

A tyrant's control ? 
No I truth o'er us stealing. 
Is brightly revealing 
In all but one feeling — 

In all but one soul ! 



~No Secession from the Union. — John Lothrop Mot- 
ley, LL. D. 

The men who had conducted the American people 
through a long and fearful revolution, were the founders 
of the new commonwealth which permanently super- 
seded the subverted authority of the crown. They 
placed the foundations on the unbiased, untrammelled 
consent of the people. They were sick of leagues, of 
petty sovereignties, of governments which could not 
govern a single individual. The framers of the consti- 



PATRIOTIC AND HEROIC ELOQUENCE. 66 

tution, which has now endured three-quarters of a cen- 
tury, and under which the nation has made a material 
and intellectual progress never surpassed in history, were 
not such triflers as to be ignorant of the consequences 
of their own acts. The constitution which they offered, 
and which the people adopted as its own, talked not of 
sovereign states — spoke not the word confederacy. In 
the very preamble to the instrument are inserted the 
vital words which show its character : " We, the people 
of the United States, to insure a more perfect union, and 
to secure the blessings of liberty for ourselves and our 
posterity, do ordain and establish this constitution" 
/Sic volo, sic jubeo. It is the language of a sovereign 
solemnly speaking to the world. It is the promulgation 
of a great law, the norma agendi of a new common- 
wealth. It is no compact. 

" A compact" says Blackstone, " is a promise proceed- 
ing from us. Law is a command directed to us. The 
language of a compact is, We will or will not do this ; 
that of a law is, Thou shalt or shalt not do it." 

And this is, throughout, the language of the consti- 
tution. Congress shall do this ; the President shall do 
that ; the states shall not exercise this or that power. 
Witness, for example, the important clauses by which 
the " sovereign" states are shorn of all the great attri- 
butes of sovereignty — no state shall coin money, nor 
emit bills of credit, nor pass ex post facto laws, nor laws 
impairing the obligation of contracts, nor maintain armies 
and navies, nor grant letters of marque, nor make com- 
pacts with other states, nor hold intercourse with for- 
eign powers, nor grant titles of nobility ; and that most 
significant phrase : "This constitution, and the laws made 
in pursuance thereof, shall be the supreme law of the 
land." 

Could language be more imperial ? Could the claim 
to state " sovereignty " be more completely disposed of 



34 PATRIOTIC AND HEEOIC ELOQUENCE. 

at a word ? How can that be sovereign, acknowledging 
no superior, supreme, which has voluntarily accepted a 
supreme law from something which it acknowledges as 
superior ? 

The constitution is perpetual, not provisional or tem- 
porary. It is made for all time — " for ourselves and our 
posterity." It is absolute within its sphere. " This con- 
stitution shall be the supreme law of the land, any thing 
in the constitution or laws of a state to the contrary not- 
withstanding." Of what value, then, is a law of a state 
declaring its connection with the Union dissolved ? The 
constitution remains supreme, and is bound to assert its 
supremacy till overpowered by force. The use of force 
— of armies and navies of whatever strength — in order 
to compel obedience to the civil and constitutional au- 
thority, is not " wicked war" is not civil war, is not war 
at all. So long as it exists the government is obliged to 
put forth its strength when assailed. The President, 
who has taken an oath before God and man to maintain 
the constitution and laws, is perjured if he yields the con- 
stitution and laws to armed rebellion without a struggle. 
He knows nothing of states. Within the sphere of the 
United States government he deals with individuals only, 
citizens of the great republic, in whatever portion of it 
they may happen to live. He has no choice but to 
enforce the laws of the republic wherever they may be 
resisted. When he is overpowered, the government 
ceases to exist. The Union is gone, and Massachusetts, 
Rhode Island and Ohio are as much separated from each 
other as they are from Georgia or Louisiana. Anarchy 
has returned upon us. The dismemberment of the com- 
monwealth is complete. We are again in the chaos of 
1785. 

But it is sometimes asked why the constitution did 
not make a special provision against the right of seces- 
sion. How could it do so ? The people created a con- 



PATRIOTIC AND HEROIC ELOQUENCE. 35 

stitution over the whole land, with certain defined, accu- 
rately enumerated powers, and among these were all the 
chief attributes of sovereignty. It was forbidden to a 
state to coin money, to keep armies and navies, to make 
compacts with other states, to hold intercourse with for- 
eign nations, to oppose the authority of the government. 
To do any one of these things is to secede, for it would 
be physically impossible to do any one of them without 
secession. It would have been puerile for the constitu- 
tion to say formally to each state : " Thou shalt not 
secede." The constitution, being the supreme law, being 
perpetual, and having expressly forbidden to the states 
those acts without which secession is an impossibility, 
would have been wanting in dignity had it used such 
superfluous phraseology. This constitution is supreme, 
whatever laws a state may enact, says the organic law. 
Was it necessary to add, " and no state shall enact a law 
of secession." To add to a great statute, in which the 
sovereign authority of the land declares its will, a phrase 
such as " and be it further enacted that the said law 
shall not be violated," would scarcely seem to strengthen 
the statute. 

It was accordingly enacted that new states might be 
admitted ; but no permission was given for a state to 
secede. 



Extracts from a Funeral Eulogy on General 
Andrew Jackson. — Hon. Benjamin F. Butler* 

Mournful but pleasant, friends and fellow-citizens, is 
the service in which we are engaged. Andrew Jackson, 

* The editor of this volume would take this fitting occasion to express his 
affection and admiration, an affection and admiration felt by the people of the 
United States generally, for Mr. Butler. His death was indeed a national calamity, 
as he was a great lawyer, a profound statesman, an ardent patriot, a devoted 
friend and an earnest Christian. 



36 PATRIOTIC AND HEROIC ELOQUENCE. 

upon whose bed of sickness and suffering have "been so 
intensely fixed the filial and solicitous regards of the 
millions of America, is no more. His great soul has 
ascended to its Author ; his venerable form has sunk 
into the grave. To that grave, with swelling hearts and 
tearful eyes, and sad funereal rites, a nation is repairing. 
We have come to it to-day. While we linger within its 
sacred precincts, the praises of the hero we reverenced, 
the magistrate we honored, and the man we loved, rise 
instinctively to our lips. To their free utterance nature 
prompts, duty enjoins, affection compels us. It is fitting, 
it is right, that such tributes should be paid to those 
who, in council or in camp, have advanced the glory of 
their country and the welfare of their kind. The homage 
thus bestowed is at least disinterested ; for the dead 
who are its objects, insensible alike to praise and to 
blame, can make no return to the living who proffer it. 
It exerts a humanizing influence on the universal heart ; 
it promotes the formation of a true nationality ; it softens 
the asperities of party ; it incites to a virtuous emulation. 
Next in purity and meekness to the thanksgivings which 
we owe to the God who gave, and guided, and sustained 
them, is the feeling of grateful reverence we should 
ever cherish toward those who are the instruments of 
his goodness. To the claims of our great men, of every 
age and time, of every sect and party, let us then be 
faithful. Let history transmit to other generations the 
story of their lives ; let the canvas and the marble per- 
petuate the image of their forms ; let poetry and music 
breathe forth their names in hymns and harmonies ; let 
the united voice of their countrymen echo their praises 
to the remotest shores — so that wherever an American 
foot shall tread, or a lover of American liberty be found, 
there, too, the memory of their greatness shall abide — a 
beauty and an excellence, the joy of all the earth ! 

We are now to contemplate Andrew Jackson in the 



PATRIOTIC AND HEEOIC ELOQUENCE. 37 

new and conspicuous theatre in which he attracted the 
regards not only of America, but of the world. Rally- 
ing to his standard, at the first moment when the ac- 
tion of the government enabled him to do so, the gal- 
lant spirits of his division, he dedicates their persons 
and his own to the service of the nation. From No- 
vember, 1812, to the cessation of hostilities, he is con- 
stantly employed in creating and leading the armies, 
fighting the battles, and vanquishing the enemies of his 
country. It is not my purpose to enter into the details 
of his military exploits. Of all and of each it may be 
said, that, in each and in all he acquitted himself as no 
other man but Andrew Jackson could have done. With 
his first touch of the marshal's truncheon, the hand of 
one born to command at will the energies of his troops, 
to infuse into them his own daring spirit, and successfully 
to cope in any and every field with the most skilful and 
courageous of his enemies, is evidently seen. Through- 
out his whole military career he exhibits, in felicitous 
combination, all the qualities of a great commander — 
comprehensiveness and accuracy of view, genius to de- 
vise, skill and courage to execute, coolness and decision 
in every emergency, perfect command of his resources, 
sagacity to discover and ability to defeat the plans of 
his antagonist. 



The Glory of the Heeo and Pateiot. — Thomas 

Moore. 

Remember the glories of Brian the brave, 

Though the days of the hero are o'er ; 
Though, lost to Mononia and cold in the grave, 

He returns to Kinkora no more ! 
That star of the field, which so often has pourod 

Its beam on the battle, is set ; 



38 PATRIOTIC AND HEROIC' ELOQUENCE. 

But enough of its glory remains on each sword 
To light us to victory yet 1 

Mononia ! when nature embellished the tint 

On thy fields and thy mountains so fair, 
Did she ever intend that a tyrant should print 

His footsteps of slavery there? 
No, freedom, whose smile we shall never resign, 

Go, tell our invaders, the Danes, 
That 'tis sweeter to bleed for an age at thy shrine, 

Than to sleep but a moment in chains ! 

Forget not our wounded companions who stood 

In the day of distress by our side ; 
"While the moss of the valley grew red with their blood, 

They stirred not, but conquered and died! 
The sun that now blesses our arms with his light, 

Saw them fall upon Ossory's jDlain — 
Oh, let him not blush when he leaves us to-night, 

To find that they fell there in vain ! 



Character of "Warren. — 'Rev. E. L. Magoon. 

Indignant at the efforts made to stifle free discussion, 
and to cheat the popular mind " of that liberty which 
rarifies and enlightens it like the influence of heaven," he 
proclaimed the rights of man, undismayed by menace, 
and cheered on his patriotic brethren, while he awed un- 
principled sycophants into silence. His brave example 
and eloquent speech caused millions of hearts to beat 
with a common sentiment of resistance. Every rock and 
wild ravine was made a rampart to " the sons of liberty," 
and their banner was on every summit unfurled, inscribed 
in letters of fire, " Resistance to tyrants is obedience to 
God!" 

Warren was eminently chivalrous and brave. Like 
Louis XII. at Aignadel, he would exclaim to the timid : 
" Let those io7w have fear, secrete themselves behind 



PATRIOTIC AND HEROIC ELOQUENCE. 6\) 

me /" Or, like the bold and generous Conde, be would 
animate his countrymen in the darkest hour with the 
cheerful cry : " Follow my white plume ; you shall recog- 
nize it always on the road to victory 7" 

In speech, as in action, he was sagacious and ener- 
getic. His words teem with the sulphurous breath of 
war, and are lurid w r ith patriotic indignation, as if coined 
at the cannon's mouth. He seized his victim as a vulture 
grasps a serpent in his talons, and bearing him aloft in 
triumph, tore him in fearless strength and scattered the 
fragments to the winds. But this was the rage produced 
by foreign aggression, and not the blind fury of ambi- 
tion. Herein was Warren, like Washington, greater 
than Napoleon. Warren was a powerful orator, because 
he was a true man, and struggled for man's highest rights. 
Eloquence and liberty are the inseparable offspring of 
the same mother, nursed at the same breast ; two beams 
from the same sun ; two chords from the same harp ; 
two arrows from the same quiver; two thunderbolts 
twin-born in heaven. 

" Tis Liberty alone that gives the flower 
Of fleeting life its lustre and perfume, 
And we are weeds without it." 



Warren's Address. — John Pierpont. 

Stand I the ground's your own, my braves ! 
Will ye give it up to slaves ? 
"Will ye look for greener graves ? 

Hope ye mercy still ? 
What's the mercy despots feel ? 
Hear it in that battle peal I 
Eead it on yon bristling steel 1 

A sk it — ye who will ! 



40 PATRIOTIC AND HEROIC ELOQUENCE. 

Fear ye foes who kill for hire ? 
"Will ye to your homes retire ? 
Look behind you ! — they're afire, 

And before you see 
"Who have done it ! From the vale 
On they come ! and will ye quail ? 
Leaden rain and iron hail 

Let their welcome be. 

In the God of battles trust ! 
Die we may, and die we must : 
But, oh 1 where can dust to dust 

Be consigned so weU, 
As where heaven its dews shall shed 
On the martyred patriot's bed, 
And the rocks shall raise their head, 

Of his deeds to tell ? 



The Battle of Lexington. — Dr. 0. Wendell Holmes. 

Slowly the mist o'er the meadow was creeping, 

Bright on the dewy buds glistened the sun, 
When from his couch, while his children were sleeping, 
Rose the bold rebel and shouldered his gun. 

"Waving her golden veil 

Over the silent dale, 
Blithe looked the morning on cottage and spire ; 

Hushed was his parting sigh, 

While from his noble eye 
Flashed the last sparkle of liberty's fire. 

On the smooth green where the fresh leaf is springing, 

Calmly the first-born of glory are met ; 
Hark, the death- volley around them is ringing ! 

Look ! with their life-blood the young grass is wet. 

Faint is the feeble breath, 

Murmuring low in death, 
"Tell to our sons how their fathers have died ;" 

Nerveless the iron hand, 

Raised for its native land, 
Lios by the weapon that gleams by its side. 



PATRIOTIC AND HEEOIC ELOQUENCE. 41 

Over the hill-side the wild knell is tolling, 

From their far hamlets the yeomanry come, 
As through the storm-clouds the thunder-burst rolling, 
Circles the beat of the mustering drum. 
Fast on the soldier's path 
Darken the waves of wrath, 
Long have they gathered and loud shall they fall : 
Red glares the musket flash, 
Sharp rings the rifle's crash, 
Blazing and clanging from thicket and wall. 

Gayly the plume of the horseman was dancing, 

Never to shadow his cold brow again ; 
Proudly at morning the war-steed was prancing, 
Reeking and panting he droops on the rein ; 

Pale is the Up of scorn, 

Voiceless the trumpet-horn, 
Torn is the silken-fringed red cross on high : 

Many a belted breast 

Low on the turf shall rest, 
Ere the dark hunters the herd have passed by. 

Snow-girdled crags where the hoarse wind is raving, 
Rocks where the weary floods murmur and wail, 
"Wilds where the fern by the furrow is waving, 
Reeled with the echoes that rolled on the gale ; 

Far as the tempest thrills 

Over the darkened hills, 
Far as the sunshine streams over the plain. 

Roused by the tyrant band, 

"Woke all the mighty land, 
Girded for battle, from mountain and main. 

Green be the graves where the martyrs are lying ! 

Shroudless and tombless they sunk to their rest — 
"While o'er their ashes the starry fold flying, 

Wraps the proud eagle they roused from his nest — 

Borne on her northern pine, 

Long o'er the foaming brine, 
Spread her broad banner to storm and to sun ; 

Heaven keep her ever free, 

Wide as o'er land and sea 
Floats the fair emblem her heroes have won. 



42 patriotic and heroic eloquence. 

Moral and Eepublican Principles not to be Aban- 
doned. — Hon. Edward Everett. 

War may stride over the land with the crushing step 
of a giant. Pestilence may steal over it like an invisible 
curse, reaching its victims silently and unseen, unpeo- 
pling here a village and there a city, until every dwelling 
is a sepulchre. Famine may brood over it with a long 
and weary visitation, until the sky itself is brazen, and 
the beautiful greenness gives place to a parched desert — 
a wide waste of unproductive desolation. But these are 
only physical evils. The wild flower will bloom in peace 
on the field of battle and above the crushed skeleton. 
The destroying angel of the pestilence will retire when his 
errand is done, and the nation will again breathe freely. 
And the barrenness of famine will cease at last — the 
cloud will be prodigal of its hoarded rain, and the wil- 
derness will blossom. 

But for moral desolation there is no reviving spring. 
Let the moral and republican principles of our coun- 
try be abandoned — let impudence, and corruption, and 
intrigue triumph over honesty and intellect, and our lib 
erties and strength will depart forever. Of these there 
can be no resuscitation. The " abomination of desola- 
tion" will be fixed and perpetual ; and as the mighty 
fabric of our glory totters into ruins, the nations of the 
earth will mock us in our overthrow, like the powers of 
darkness, when the throned one of Babylon became even 
as themselves — and the " glory of the Chaldees' excel- 
lency had gone down." 



PATRIOTIC AND HEROIC ELOQUENCE. 43 



The Falcon. — James Russell Lowell. 

I know a falcon swift and peerless 
As e'er was cradled in the pine ; 

No bird had ever eye so fearless, 
Or wing so strong as this of mine. 

The winds not better love to pilot 
A cloud with molten gold o'errun, 

Than him, a little burning islet, 
A star above the coming sun. 

For with a lark's heart he doth tower, 
By a glorious upward instinct drawn ; 

No bee nestles deeper in the flower, 
Than he in the bursting rose of dawn. 

No harmless dove, no bird that singeth, 
Shudders to see him overhead; 

The rush of his fierce swooping bringeth, 
To innocent hearts no thrill of dread. 

Let fraud, and wrong, and baseness shiver, 
For still between them and the sky 

The falcon Truth hangs poised forever, 
And marks them with a vengeful eye. 



Character of Daniel Webster. — Win. H. Seward. 

Who that was even confessedly provincial, was ever so 
indentified with any thing local as Daniel Webster was 
with the spindles of Lowell, and the quarries of Quincy ; 
with Faneuil Hah, Bunker Hill, Forefathers' Day, Ply- 
mouth Rock, and whatever else belonged to Massachu- 
setts ? And yet, who that was most truly national has 
ever so sublimely celebrated, or so touchingly commend- 
ed to our reverent affection, our broad and ever broad- 
ening continental home ; its endless rivers, majestic 



44r PATRIOTIC AND HEKOIC ELOQUENCE. 

mountains, and capacious lakes ; its inimitable and inde- 
scribable constitution; its cherished and growing capital; 
its aptly conceived and expressive flag, and its triumphs 
by land and sea ; and its immortal founders, heroes, and 
martyrs ? How manifest it was, too, that, unlike those 
who are impatient of slow but sure progress, he loved his 
country, not for something greater or higher than he de- 
sired or hoped she might be, but just for what she was, 
and as she was already, regardless of future change. 

No, sir ; believe me, they err widely who say that 
Daniel Webster was cold and passionless. It is true 
that he had little enthusiasm ; but he was, nevertheless, 
earnest and sincere, as well as calm ; and therefore he 
was both discriminating and comprehensive in his affec- 
tions. We recognize his likeness in the portrait drawn 
by a Roman pencil : 

" "Who with nice discernment knows 

What to his country and his friend he owes ; 
How various nature warms the human breast, 
To love the parent, brother, friend, or guest, 
What the great offices of judges are, 
Of senators, of generals sent to war." 

Daniel Webster was cheerful, and, on becoming occa- 
sions joyous, and even mirthful ; but he was habitually 
engaged in profound studies on great affairs. He was, 
moreover, constitutionally fearful of the dangers of pop- 
ular passion and prejudice ; and so, in public walk, con- 
versation, and debate, he was grave and serious, even to 
solemnity ; yet he never desponded in the darkest hours 
of personal or political trial ; and melancholy, never in 
health, nor even in sickness, spread a pall over his spirits. 

It must have been very early that he acquired that just 
estimate of his powers which was the basis of a self-re- 
liance which all the world saw and approved, and which, 
while it betrayed no feature of vanity, none but a super- 



PATRIOTIC AND HEROIC ELOQUENCE. 45 

ficial observer could have mistaken for pride or arro- 
gance. 

Daniel Webster was no sophist. With a talent for 
didactic instruction which might have excused dogma- 
tism, he never lectured on the questions of morals that 
are agitated in the schools. But he seemed, nevertheless, 
to have acquired a philosophy of his own, and to have 
made it the rule and guide of his life. That philosophy 
consisted in improving his powers and his tastes, so that 
he might appreciate whatever was good and beautiful in 
nature and art, and attain to whatever was excellent in 
conduct. He had accurate perceptions of the nature and 
qualities of things. He overvalued nothing that was 
common, and undervalued nothing that was useful, or 
even ornamental. His lands, his cattle, and equipage, 
his dwelling, library, and apparel, his letters, arguments, 
and orations — every thing that he had, every thing that he 
made, every thing that he did, was, as far as possible, fit, 
complete, perfect. He thought decorous forms neces- 
sary for preserving whatever was substantial in politics 
and morals, and even in religion. In his regard, order 
was the first law, and peace the chief blessing on earth, 
as they are in heaven. Therefore, while he desired 
justice and loved liberty, he reverenced law as the first 
divinity of states and of society. 



Ode for the Metropolitan Obsequies of Daniel 
Webster. — William JRoss Wallace. 

i. 

Not in the Capitol's high halls, 
Nor by the solemnly-sounding main, 
Nor where the mountains lift their grand old walls, 
Shall he be seen again. 



46 PATRIOTIC AND HEKOIC ELOQUENCE. 

The voice is hushed that made the nations bow, 

And that majestic form forever gone, 
As though an Alp with thunder-daring brow, 
Should suddenly disappear, 
When all the sky is clear, 
And leave where tall crags towered au unregarded lawn. 

n. 

Yet doth the earth no token give 
That he, the wondrous one, hath ceased to live ; 
No forests wave the music of their woe ; 
No great winds melancholy blow ; 
No streams with slower motion flow ; 
No ocean folds his psalms, 
And stills his stormy palms ; 
No cloud in funeral drapery is furled, 

Though he lies low in death ; 
And not an orb can feel our sister- world 

Move on with fainter breath : 
But calm and beautiful as in her prime, 
Earth rolls around her mighty dome of Time 
A joy is in her glowing heart — 
A joy too deep for any sign 
Or human or divine : 
For she hath done her part ; 
And therefore with an inward smile, 
She saw her Titan-son — 
His glorious mission done, his massive laurels won- 
From this her interstellar isle 
Set free, 
And crowned to wander through Eternity. 

So, tearless, she can mark the summons still 
From Death's dim, melancholy deeps, 

And hear the thunders of Almighty w ill 
Go sounding down the everlasting steeps. 

in. 
Be we ! Ah, we I 
Ours is a lesser life and thought than hers, 

And even our smiles 
Are but the prophets of a realm of tears. 



PATRIOTIC AND HEROIC ELOQUENCE. 

Then bid the nation's burial banners sweep 

A darkness o'er the Titan's sleep ; 

And for remembrance of the mighty dead, 

With funeral garlands bind each mountain's head ; 

And let the North come up with oaken bough 

To hold above his large pale brow ; 

And let the sad West from her prairies bring 

The grandest flowers that image sorrow's gloom, 
To wave beneath the Southern pine, when Spring 

Leans gently o'er the patriot's hallowed tomb ; 
And bid the great winds give their organs breath 

In clouds of sound o'er states that weep below — 
When shadowed thus by such majestic death, 

No common deed can speak uncommon woe. 

IV. 

Yet in our darkest grief 
Before that pale but cherished form, 
Come radiant thoughts that bring to us relief, 

Like rainbows brought by storm. 
Lo ! smiling Memory proudly points lis back 

To his stupendous track : 
But speak his name and in the Senate hall 
The banners, bearing many a battle-scar, 
Yet beautiful with each rejoicing star, 
Lift every fold and rustle on the wall : 
But speak his words, there is a brighter beam 
On Plymouth's rock and far Missouri's stream; 
And over Ossa stride victorious G-reoks, 
To freedom dedicate each daring soul, 
While round the enchanted white Olympian peaks 
Exulting thunders roll. 

Oh joy I for thus we hold his glories still 

On every storied wave and hill : 

The god departs, yet Delphos is divine ; 

The Samian dies, but lingering, sound his strains ; 
The prophet fades, still Zion reads her shrine ; 

The builder sinks, his pyramid remains. 

v. 

Then fold the glorious slumberer's hands, 
And let his nation, reverent, spread his pall ; 



48 PATRIOTIC AND HEROIC ELOQUENCE. 

Now, rising, proudly tell the listening lands, 
Our Titan sleeps in death's selectest hall ; 
And, in the light of his own glory shrined, 

A king of thought, here takes his place at last, 
With all the mighty monarchs of the mind 
Who royally trod the mountains of the past. 
Nor this the nation speaks alone, 
But lifts a loftier tone — 
The cloud cannot destroy the climbing star, 
But only hides tho orb that seeks afar, 
Beyond all mortal pains, 
A larger place on the eternal plains. 
Thus, freed from mortal ill, 
We know, we know he liveth still I 
And, though far off from his ethereal clime, 

The finer sense can hear his massive tread 
Beneath the immortal dome that curves sublime 
Above the solemn cities of the dead. 

So, in despite of mountains reared between 

Our homes and some vast ocean's distant shore, 
We, with hushed breath, a moment, listening, lean, 
And know the great waves are, though still uuseen- 
The billows waft their murmurs evermore. 



America. — Charles Phillips. 

I appeal to history ! Tell me, thou reverend chroni- 
cler of the grave, can all the illusions of ambition real- 
ized, can all the wealth of a universal commerce, can all 
the achievements of successful heroism, or all the estab- 
lishments of this world's wisdom, secure to empire the 
permaneucy of its possessions ? Alas ! Troy thought so 
once ; yet the land of Priam lives only in song ! Thebes 
thought so once ; yet her hundred gates have crumbled, 
and her very tombs are but as the dust they were vainly 
intended to commemorate ! So thought Palmyra — where 
is she ? So thought the countries of Demosthenes and 



PATRIOTIC AND HEROIC ELOQUENCE. 49 

the Spartan ; yet Leonidas is trampled by the timid sla\ e, 
and Athens insulted by the servile, mindless, and ener- 
vate Ottoman ! In his hurried march, time has but 
looked at their imagined immortality ; and all its vani- 
ties, from the palace to the tomb, have, with their ruins, 
erased the very impression of his footsteps ! The days 
of their glory are as if they had never been ; and the 
island that was then a speck, rude and neglected in the 
barren ocean, now rivals the ubiquity of their commerce, 
the glory of their arms, the fame of their philosophy, the 
eloquence of their senate, and the inspiration of their 
bards ! Who shall say, then, contemplating the past, 
that England, proud and potent as she appears, may not, 
one day, be what Athens is, and the young America yet 
soar to be what Athens was ! Who shall say that, when 
the European column shall have mouldered, and the 
night of barbarism obscured its very ruins, that mighty 
continent may not emerge from the horizon, to rule for 
its time, sovereign of the ascendant ! 



War Questions — To Colonel 0. M. Clay — 1861- 
William Ross Wallace. 

DEDICATED TO J. FRANK HOWE. 
" The battle is for the entity of the nation."— Dr. Chapin. 

soldier ! soldier ! why thus is your hand 
With such eagerness clasped on your sharp battle-brand ? 
Has your flag been insulted ? its eagle betrayed ? 
For revenge flash the flames of that blood-drinking blade ? 
" Not. revenge, not revenge, that is arming me now, 
But as white as a dove's is the plume on my brow, 
Though the flag was insulted — the star-flag that rolled 
Like a storm for the right o'er my fathers of old!" 

soldier ! soldier ! Is't glory you seek 
"Where the war demon shouts, and the death- vultures shriek' 
3 



50 PATRIOTIC AND HEROIC ELOQUENCE. 

Does your manly brow yearn for the laurels that wave 
On the tree that is nursed by the blood of the brave ? 
" no I 'tis not glory that calls on my soul, 
Where the black cannons roar and the red banners roll, 
Though 'tis there that the bold, gallant hand may entwine 
Greenest wreaths for his name on a world-worshipped shrine. 

soldier 1 soldier ! then why is your hand 
"With such eagerness clasped on that sharp battle-brand ? 
While the flush on your brow, and the flash in your eye, 
Show that storms of deep passion are thundering by ? 
" 'Tis the right ! 'Tis the right ! God's own high holy right, 
That has called me, and armed for the terrible fight ! 
ye shades of my fathers ! ye, to whose hand 
We have owed the great Union that blesses our land, 
Lo, the traitors have struck ! They would rend the star-fold 
That for freedom, and honor, and truth ye unrolled ! 
How your grand eyes look on me 1 — I rush to the strife 
Not for fame or revenge — but the national life!" 



Death of John Quincy Adams. — Hon. William H. 
Sewaixl. 

The distinguished characteristics of his life were 
beneficent labor and personal contentment. He never 
sought -wealth, but devoted himself to the service of 
mankind. Yet, by the practice of frugality and method, 
he secured the enjoyment of dealing forth continually no 
stinted charities, and died in affluence. He never soli- 
cited place or preferment, and had no partisan combina- 
tion or even connections ; yet he received honors which 
eluded the covetous grasp of those who formed parties, 
rewarded friends, and proscribed enemies ; and he filled 
a longer period of varied and distinguished service than 
ever fell to the lot of any other citizen. In every stage 
of this progress he was content. He was content to be 
president, minister, representative or citizen. 



PATRIOTIC AND IIEROIC ELOQUENCE. 01 

Stricken in the very midst of this service, in the very 
act of rising to debate, he fell into tli3 arms of conscript 
fathers of the republic. A long lethargy supervened 
and oppressed his senses. Nature rallied the wasting 
powers, on the verge of the grave, for a brief period. 
But it was long enough for him. The rekindled eye 
showed that the recollected mind was clear, calm and 
vigorous. His weeping family and his sorrowing com- 
panions were there. He surveyed the scene and knew 
at once its fatal import. He had left no duty unper- 
formed ; he had no wish unsatisfied ; no ambition unat- 
tained ; no regret, no sorrow, no fear, no remorse. He 
could not shake off the dews that gathered on his brow, 
he could not pierce the thick shades that rose up before 
him. But he knew that eternity lay close by the shores 
of time. He knew that his Redeemer lived. Eloquence, 
even in that hour, inspired him with his ancient sub- 
limity of utterance. " This," said the dying man, " this 
is the last of earth." He paused for a moment, and then 
added, " I am content." Angels might well have drawn 
aside the curtains of the sky to look down on such a 
scene — a scene that approximated even to that scene of 
unapproachable sublimity, not to be recalled without 
reverence, when, in mortal agony, One who spake as 
never man spake, said, " It is finished." 



ElENZI TO THE ROMANS. TkomCCS MoOt'S. 

Romans ! look round you — on this sacred place 

There once stood shrines, and gods, and godlike men- 

"What see you now ? what solitary trace 
Of all that made Rome's glory then ? 

The shrines are sunk, the sacred mount bereft 
Even of its name — and nothing now remains 



52 PATRIOTIC AND HEROIC ELOQUENCE. 

But the deep memory of that glory, left 

To whet our pangs and aggravate our chains ! 
But shall this be ? — our sun and sky the same, 

Treading the very soil our fathers trod — 
What withering curse has fallen on soul and frame ? 

What visitation has there come from God, 
To blast our strength and rot us into slaves, 
Here on our great forefathers' glorious graves ? 
It cannot be 1 Eise up, ye mighty dead, 

If we, the living, are too weak to crush 
These tyrant priests, that o'er your empire tread 

Till all but Romans at Rome's tameness blush ! 

Happy Palmyra ! in thy desert domes 

Where only date-trees sigh and serpents hiss ; 
And thou whose pillars are but silent homes 

For the stork's brood, superb Persepolis I 
Thrice happy both, that your extinguished race 
Has left no embers, no half-living trace, 
No slaves to crawl around the once proud spot, 
Till past renown in present shame's forgot ; 
While Rome, the queen of all, whose very wrecks, 

If lone and lifeless through a desert hurled, 
Would wear more true magnificence than decks 

The assembled thrones of all the assembled world- 
Rome, Rome alone is haunted, stained and cursed, 

Through every spot her princely Tiber laves, 
By living human things, the deadliest, worst 

That earth engenders — tyrants and their slaves ! 

And we — oh, shame ! — we, who have pondered o'er 

The patriot's lesson and the poet's lay; 
Have mounted up the streams of ancient lore, 

Tracking our country's glories all the way — 
Even we have tamely, basely kissed the ground 

Before that regal power, that ghost of her, 
The world's imperial mistress — sitting crowned 

And ghastly on her mouldering sepulchre I 

But this is past — too long have lordly priests 
And priestly lords led us, with all our pride 

Withering about us — like devoted beasts 

Dragged to the shrine, with faded garlands tied. 



PATRIOTIC AND HEROIC ELOQUENCE. 53 

'Tis o'er ! — the dawn of our deliverance breaks 1 

Up from his sleep of centuries awakes 

The genius of the old republic, free 

As first he stood in chaiuless majesty, 

And sends his voice through ages yet to come, 

Proclaiming Rome, Rome, Rome, eternal Rome I 



Speech of Macbriar to the Scotch Insurgents. — 
Walter Scott. 

Tour garments are dyed, but not with the juice of 
the wine-press ; your swords are filled with blood, but 
not with the blood of goats or lambs ; the dust of the 
desert on which ye stand is made fat with gore, but not 
with the blood of bullocks, for the Lord hath a sacrifice 
in Bozrah and a great slaughter in the land of Idumea. 
These were not the firstlings of the flock ; this is not the 
savor of myrrh, of frankincense, or of sweet herbs, that 
is steaming in your nostrils ; but these bloody trunks are 
the carcasses of those that held the bow and the lance, 
who were cruel and would show no mercy, whose voice 
roared like the sea, who rode upon horses, every man in 
array as if to battle. 

Leave not, therefore, the plough in the furrow ; turn 
not back from the path on which you have entered ; like 
the famous worthies of old, whom God raised up for the 
glorification of his name, and the deliverance of his af- 
flicted people, halt not in the race you are running, lest 
the latter end should be worse than the beginning. 
Wherefore set up a standard in the land ; blow a trum- 
pet upon the mountains ; let not the shepherd tarry by 
his sheepfold, nor the seedsman continue in the ploughed 
field, but make the watch strong, sharpen the arrows, 
burnish the shields, name ye the captains of thousands, 
and captains of hundreds, of fifties, and of tens ; call the 



54 PATRIOTIC AND HEROIC ELOQUENCE. 

footmen like the rushing of winds, and cause the horse- 
men to come up like the rushing of many waters, for the 
passages of the destroyers are stopped, their rods are 
burned, and the face of their men of battle hath been 
turned to flight. 

Up, then, and be doing ; the blood of martyrs, reek- 
ing upon scaffolds, is crying for vengeance ; the bones of 
saints, which lie whitening in the highways, are pleading 
for retribution ; the graves of innocent captives, from 
desolate isles of the sea, and from the dungeons of the 
tyrants' high places, cry for deliverance ; the prayers of 
persecuted Christians, sheltering themselves in deserts 
from the sword of their persecutors, famished with hun- 
ger, starving with cold, lacking fire, food, shelter, and 
clothing, because they serve God rather than man — all 
are with you, pleading, watching, kuocking, storming 
the gates of heaven in your behalf. 



Rebellion to be Put Down — the Nation to be 
Saved — 1861. — Hon. Joseph Holt. 

It is true that before this deliverance of the popular 
mind of the South from the threatenings and alarm 
which have subdued it, can be accomplished, the re- 
morseless agitators who have made this revolution, and 
now hold its reins, must be discarded alike from the 
public confidence and the public service. The country 
in its agony is feeling their power, and we well under- 
stand how difficult will be the task of overthrowing the 
ascendency they have secured. But the Union men of 
the South — believed to be in the majority in every se- 
ceded state, except perhaps South Carolina — aided by 
the presence of the government, will be fully equal to 
the emergency. Let these agitators perish, politically, 
if need be, by the score : 



PATRIOTIC AND HEROIC ELOQUENCE. 55 

" A breath can unmake them what a breath has made," 

but destroy this republic and — 

" Where is that Promethean heat 
That can its light relume ? 

Once entombed, when -will the angel of the resurrec- 
tion descend to the portals of its sepulchre ? There is 
not a voice which comes to us from the cemetery of 
nations that does not answer: " Never, never !" Amid 
the torments of perturbed existence, we may have 
glimpses of rest and of freedom, as the maniac has 
glimpses of reason between the paroxysms of his mad- 
ness, but we shall attain to neither national dignity nor 
national repose. We shah be a mass of jarring, war- 
ring, fragmentary states, enfeebled and demoralized, 
without power at home or respectability abroad, and, 
like the republics of Mexico and South America, we 
shall drift away on a shoreless and ensanguined sea 
of civil commotion, from which, if the teachings of his- 
tory are to be trusted, we shall be finally rescued by the 
iron hand of some military wrecker, who will coin the 
shattered elements of our greatness and of our strength 
into a diadem and a throne. Said M. Fould, the great 
French statesman, to an American citizen, a few weeks 
since : " Your republic is dead, and it is probably the 
last the world will ever see. You will have a reign of 
terrorism, and after that two or three monarchies." All 
this may be verified, should this revolution succeed. 

Let us, then, twine each thread of the glorious tissue 
of our country's flag about our heart-strings, and looking 
upon our homes, and catching the spirit that breathes 
upon us from the battle-fields of our fathers, let us resolve 
that, come -weal or woe, we will, in life and in death, 
now and forever, stand by the stars and stripes. They 
have floated over our cradles, let it be our prayer and 
our struggle that they shall float over our graves. They 



56 PATRIOTIC AND HEROIC ELOQUENCE. 

have been unfurled from the snows of Canada to the 
plains of New Orleans, and to the halls of the Monte- 
zumas, and amid the solitudes of every sea ; and every- 
where, as the luminous symbol of resistless and benefi- 
cent power, they have led the brave and the free to vic- 
tory and to glory. It has been my fortune to look upon 
this flag in foreign lands and amid the gloom of an ori- 
ental despotism, and right well do I know, by contrast, 
how bright are its stars, and how sublime are its inspira- 
tions ! If this banner, the emblem for us of all that is 
grand in human history, and of all that is transporting 
in human hope, is to be sacrificed on the altars of a 
Satanic ambition, and thus disappear forever amid the 
night and tempest of revolution, then will I feel — and 
who shall estimate the desolation of that feeling ? — that 
the sun has indeed been stricken from the sky of our 
lives, and that henceforth we shall be but wanderers and 
outcasts, with naught but the bread of sorrow and of 
penury for our lips, and with hands ever outstretched in 
feebleness and supplication, on which, in any hour, a 
military tyrant may rivet the fetters of a despairing 
bondage. May God in his infinite mercy save you and 
me, and the land we so much love, from the doom of 
such a degradation. 

No contest so momentous as this has arisen in human 
history, for, amid all the conflicts of men and of nations, 
the life of no such government as ours has ever been 
at stake. Our fathers won onr independence by the 
blood and sacrifices of a seven years' war, and we have 
maintained it against the assault of the greatest power 
upon the earth ; and the question now is, whether we 
are to perish by our own hands, and have the epitaph of 
suicide written upon our tomb. The ordeal through 
which we are passing must involve immense suffering 
and losses for us all ; but the expenditure of not merely 
hundreds of millions, but of billions of treasure, will be 



PATRIOTIC AND HEROIC ELOQUENCE. 57 

well made, if the result shall be the preservation of our 
institutions. 

Could ruy voice reach every dwelling in Kentucky, I 
would implore its inmates — if they would not have .the 
rivers of their prosperity shrink away, as do unfed 
streams beneath the summer heats — to rouse themselves 
from their lethargy, and fly to the rescue of their coun- 
try before it is everlastingly too late. Man should ap- 
peal to man, and neighborhood to neighborhood, until 
the electric fires of patriotism shall flash from heart to 
heart in one unbroken current throughout the land. It is 
a time in which the workshop, the office, the counting- 
house, and the field, may well be abandoned for the sol- 
emn duty that is upon us, for all these toils will but 
bring treasure, not for ourselves, but for the spoiler, if 
this revolution is not arrested. We are all, with our 
every earthly interest, embarked in mid-ocean on the 
same common deck. The howl of the storm is in our 
ears, "the lightning's red glare is painting hell on the 
sky," and while the noble ship pitches and rolls under 
the lashings of the waves, the cry is heard that she has 
sprung a leak at many points, and that the rushing 
waters are mounting rapidly in the hold. The man 
who, in such an hour, will not work at the pumps, is 
either a maniac or a monster. 



Martial Elegy. — Tyrtceus. 

How glorious fall the valiant, sword in hand, 
In front of battle, for their native land ! 
But, oh ! what ills await the wretch that yields, 
A recreant outcast from his native fields ! 

The mother whom he loves shall quit her home, 
An aged father at his side shall roam ; 



3* 



58 PATRIOTIC AND HEKOIC ELOQUENCE. 

His little ones shall weeping with him go, 
And a young wife participate his woe. 

But we wih combat for our native land ; 
And we will drain the life-blood where we stand, 
To save our children : — fight ye side by side, 
And serried close, ye men of youthful pride I 

The hero youth that dies in blooming years, 
In man's regret he lives, in woman's tears ; 
More sacred than in life, and lovelier far 
For having perished in the front of war ! 



Speech at the great American Union Meeting, 
May, 1861, est Paris, France. — Hon. C. M. Clay. 

Gentlemen : I had desired to go where my govern- 
ment had ordered me without entering upon political 
questions. It was with no ordinary feelings that, land- 
ing at Calais, I first set foot upon this land of our ancient 
ally and steadfast friend, who so gallantly aided us in 
the achieving our independence and founding a great 
nation. As an agriculturist I was interested in the 
thorough culture of the soil, and as a lover of nature I 
was enchanted with the large vista over green fields, hill 
and dale, intercepted by occasional dense forests, which 
more than realized all I had imagined of " La Belle 
France." But what shall I say of Paris ? — her spacious 
and elegant streets, her grand old classic structures, her 
beautiful works, her galleries of arts — the fine and the 
useful — her monuments of dramatic history, and above 
all, her development of progress and civilization ? For I 
must say that I have not seen a beggar, a ragged man 
or a drunkard in France. A manly sympathy with the 
cause of liberty in '76 has not, by the eternal laws, been 
lost upon her people. Does any man venture to say that 



PATRIOTIC AND HEROIC ELOQUENCE. 59 

the French of to-day have paid too much in treasure and 
blood for the liberties they now enjoy, which this great 
people and the great chief of their choice equally recog- 
nize ? The political empyric only is impatient ; waiting 
upon nature, and following upon the fading footprints of 
the ages, the world-wide statesman and philanthropist 
withholds the hand of rash propagandism. With hope- 
ful aspirations for the future, with all my heart, I say, 
11 Vive la France, vive VAmeriqueV Yes, gentlemen, 
my country shall live. She sacrifices property, and life, 
and kindred to justice. She suffers all things for the 
whole race ; not forgetting the language of Lafayette 
and all the martyrs of '76, she draws her sword once 
more in " defence of the rights of human nature." Yes, 
our Union, our constitution, and our liberties shall live. 
That is why I have said elsewhere, this rebellion shall 
go down. "Cotton is king!" No; "Grass is king;" 
for the United States produce more dollars' worth of 
grass than of cotton. Let the South send $400,000,000 
worth of cotton to the nations — if she pays it out, all 
out, for clothes and food, and mules and cotton-gins, and 
farming utensils — what does it matter ? She finds her- 
self at the end of the year indebted in advance of her 
income. Her banks are exhausted of their coin to pay 
for food ; her notes are not redeemed ; her currency 
ceases to circulate ; her stocks are nothing ; her credit 
is gone. Does The Times understand me ? Therefore 
I say, of course, we can conquer her. I am accused of 
threatening England. I am not in the habit of casting 
about me to see how I may make truth most palatable. 
Let those who stand in the way of truth look out. If 
England, after all she has said against slavery, shall draw 
her sword in its defence, then I say, great as she is, she 
shall " perish by the sword." For then not only France, 
but all the world shall cry, "Perftde Albion /" When 
she mingles the red crosses of the union-jack with the 



60 PATRIOTIC AND HEKOIC ELOQUENCE. 

piratical black flag of the " Confederate States of Amer- 
ica" — will not just as certainly the tricolor and the 
stars and stripes float once more in fraternal fold. Can 
France forget who has doggedly hedged in all the fields 
of her glory ? Can Napoleon forget St. Helena ? Will 
he at her bidding turn his back upon the East ? Shall 
" Partant pour la Syrie" be heard no more in France 
forever ? Russia strengthens herself by giving np slave 
labor for the omnipotent powers of nature — which by 
steam, and electricity, and water, and the mechanical 
forces, share with man the creative omnipotence. Shall 
England cross half the globe to check the Eastern march 
of her new-born civilization ? I have spoken to England 
not as an enemy but as a friend. For her own sake, I 
would have her be true to herself. If England would 
preserve cotton for her millions of operatives, let her 
join in putting down the rebellion. Her interference in 
defence of the rebels of the South will force us to do that 
which would be a calamity to us as well as to them — 
at a blow to destroy slavery forever. The interests of 
England and France lie in the same direction — in the 
preservation of the Union, and the making of successful 
rebellion impossible. Especially does France find safety 
in our unity and prosperity — for between us there is no 
antagonism whatever. We want her silks, her brandies, 
her wines, her porcelains, her cloths, her finer cottons ; 
her thousand articles of unequalled taste. She wants our 
tobacco, our meats, our grains, and all that ; while she 
will not envy us the prosperity of our ruder maaufac- 
tures, which put money in our purse, and make us able 
to purchase all she has to sell us. Let England, and 
France, and Russia, and Spain, and Mexico, and all the 
nations join with us. The Union — it shall be preserved. 
Planting myself upon the broad principles of natural lav/, 
which it was the glory of Lord Chatham to introduce 
into modern diplomacy, I most heartily respond to your 



PATRIOTIC AND HEROIC ELOQUENCE. 61 

resolutions ; I join the old Romans in the purity of my 
patriotism ; of our nationality my undying aspiration is, 
"JEsto perpetua /" of slavery, "Delenda est Carthago /" 



Speech at the same Meeting. — Major- General 
John C. Fremont. 

Mb. President, Ladies aistd Gentlemen: I am deeply 
sensible to the warm and flattering expressions of confi- 
dence and regard with which I have just been honored, 
and still more deeply sensible to your kind approval of 
them. They are very grateful to me, and I thank you 
very sincerely. But you will be very sure that I do not 
receive them as due to myself; I am conscious that I 
owe them to the partiality of friendship and to that sort 
of attachment which a soldier always feels for the ban- 
ner under which he has fought. To Mr. Burlingame 
and the other friends around me who have spoken to- 
day, I represent the standard on which old watchwords 
were inscribed. It is themselves who were the lead- 
ers, themselves who bore with you the heat of the day, 
and who have won their battle gloriously. And they 
have come among us here, with their habitual eloquence, 
to convey to our true-hearted countrymen at home the 
assurance of our unalterable devotedness to the country, 
and our unbounded admiration of the generous loyalty 
with which they rallied to its calls. A few days back 
our honored flag was trailing in the dust at the foot of 
an insolent foe ; at present its stars are refulgent from a 
thousand heights, swarming with brave hearts and strong 
arms in its defence. We drink to them to-day, our brave 
and loyal countrymen. Faithfully, too, have our scat- 
tered people responded to them, from Italy, from Eng- 
land, and from France. Well have they shown that 



62 PATRIOTIC AND HEROIC ELOQUENCE. 

they, too, can cross the seas and change their skies, and 
never change their hearts. I am glad that a happy 
chance has brought me to participate with you here on 
this occasion. Here is this splendid capital of a great 
nation, where near by us the same tombstone records the 
blended names of Washington and Lafayette. I feel 
that I breathe a sympathetic air. France is progress, 
and I am happy to believe that here we shall not see a 
people false to their traditional policy. From here we 
shall see no strong hand stretched out to arrest the 
march of civilization, and aid in throwing back a conti- 
nent into barbarism. We expect nowhere active co-op- 
eration, but we look for the sympathy which the world 
gives to a good cause. We are willing to work out our 
own destiny, and make our own history. Before this 
struggle closes, the world will recognize that enlightened 
liberty is self-sustaining, and that a people who have 
once fully enjoyed its blessings will never consent to 
part with them. We have deprecated this war as fratri- 
cidal and abominable ; most gladly would we welcome 
back our people if they would return to their allegiance. 
We would bury, deep as the ocean, the hasty anger 
which their patricidal conduct provoked. But they must 
return at once to their allegiance. We shall not permit 
them to dishonor our flag, and desecrate our sacred 
graves. They cannot be permitted to dismember our 
country and destroy our nationality. We shall maintain 
these in their fullest integrity, in the face of every evil 
and at every hazard. Above every consideration is our 
country, as we have learned to love it — one and indivisi- 
ble, now and forever, and so we will maintain it ; we will 
do our duty loyally, and we will make no compromise 
with treason, and no surrender to rebellion. 



patriotic and heroic eloquence. 03 

Extract from a Speech made at the Union Meet- 
ing, in Union Square, New York, 18G1. — Hon. 
John A. Dix. 

I am for supporting the government. I do not ask 
who administers it. It is the government of my country, 
and as such I shall give it in this extremity all the support 
in my power. I regard the pending contest with the 
secessionists as a death-struggle for constitutional liberty 
and law — a contest which, if successful on their part, 
could only end in the establishment of a despotic govern- 
ment, and blot out, wherever they were in the ascendant, 
every vestige of national freedom. You know, fellow- 
citizens, that I have always been in favor of adjusting 
controversies between the states by conciliation, by com- 
promise, by mutual concession — in a word, in the spirit 
in which the constitution was formed. Whenever the 
times shall be propitious for calm consultation, they will 
find me so still. But until then, let us remember that 
nothing could be so disastrous, so humiliating, and so dis- 
reputable to us all, as to see the common government 
overthrown, or its legitimate authority successfully re- 
sisted. Let us, then, rally with one heart to its support. 
I believe it will act with all the moderation and forbear- 
ance consistent with the preservation of the great inter- 
ests confided to it. There is no choice left but to acqui- 
esce in its surrender to revolutionary leaders, or to give 
it the means it needs for defence, for self-preservation, 
and for the assertion of its authority, holding it responsi- 
ble for their legitimate use. Fellow-citizens, we stand 
before the statue of the father of his country. The flag 
of the Union which floats over it hung above him when 
he presided over the convention by which the constitu- 
tion was framed. The great work of his life has been 
rejected, and the banner by which his labors were conse- 



64 PATRIOTIC AND HEROIC ELOQUENCE. 

crated has been trampled in the dust. If the inanimate 
bronze in which the sculptor has shaped his image could 
be changed to the living form which led the armies of 
the revolution to victory, he would command us, in the 
name of the hosts of patriots and political martyrs who 
have gone before, to strike for the defence of the Union 
and the constitution. 



Words for the Hour. — Franklin J. Ottarson. 
i. 

The only free flag under heaven 

Is trampled by a traitor brood, 
Its stars are dimmed, its stripes are riven; 

Up, freemen ! justice calls for blood ! 
Up, from your indolent repose ; 

Arm for the fratricidal strife — 
Unnatural brothers are your foes ; 

Up, then, for freedom, law, and life ! 

II. 

That flag, on every sea and shore, 

Has nobly won a noble name ; 
Alas, that those who should adore, 

Would blast it with eternal shame ! 
The mightiest king that holds a throne, 

Respects the banner of the free, 
Gives it a rank beside his own, 

And bows before its majesty. 

in. 

Not all the earth could yield a foe 

That dared defy the stripes and stars ; 
Treason alone hath struck the blow, 

And challenged to the field of wars. 
Up, then, to give the rebel band 

The lesson never yet unheard, 
And write it in a freeman's hand, 

With bullet, bayonet and sword ! 



PATRIOTIC AND HEROIC ELOQUENCE. 65 



Up with the banner of the free ! 

And forward, to the battle-field ! 
On, for your nationality, 

Tdl every treacherous foe shall yield ; 
Till over Sumter's shattered wall, 

The stars and stripes again shall rise, 
Though every rebel's head shall fall, 

To just revenge a sacrifice ! 

V. 
On, till you reassert the right 

Of freemen to their native land ; 
Till vindicated in the sight 

Of all the world our flag shall stand ; 
Till spotted Treason, crushed in blood, 

Sinks to the hell from which it rose, 
And Freedom, in the name of God, 

Shall triumph over all her foes ! 



Patriotic Duty of the Present Generation* — - 
Hon. W. M. Marts. 

Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen : I regard this as a 
business meeting commencing the greatest transaction 
that this generation of men have seen. We stand here 
the second generation from the men who declared our 
independence, fought the battles of the revolution, and 
framed our constitution. The question for us to decide 
is, whether we are worthy children of such men — whether 
our descendants shall curse us as we bless our fathers. 
Gentlemen, you have got something more to do than you 
have done hitherto — something more than merely to read 
the glorious history of ths past ; you have got to write a 
history for the future that your children will either glory 

* Delivered at the great Union meeting in New York, 1S61. 



bb PATRIOTIC AND HEKOIC ELOQUENCE. 

in or blush for. When Providence puts together the 
19th of April, 1776, when the first blood was shed at 
Lexington, and the 19th of April, 1861, when the first 
blood was shed at Baltimore, I tell you it means some- 
thing. What that statue of Washington sustains in its 
firm hands, the flagstaff of Fort Sumter — I tell you it 
means something. There is but one question left, and 
that is, whether you mean something, too. If you mean 
something, do you mean enough ? Do you mean enough 
of time, of labor, of money, of men, of blood, to seal 
and sanction the glories of the future of America? Your 
ancestors fought for and secured independence, liberty 
and equal rights. Every enemy of liberty, independence 
and equal rights, has told you that those ideas are incon- 
sistent with government. It is for you to show that 
government of the people means that the people shall 
obey the government. Having shown what the world 
never saw till the Declaration of Independence was made 
— what a people which governs itself can do in peace, 
you are to show what a people which governs truly means 
to accomplish, when it wages war against traitors and 
rebels. Each man here is fighting his own quarrel and 
protecting the future of his children. With these senti- 
ments, you need no argument and no suggestion to carry 
you through the conflict. You are to remember your 
fathers and care for your children. 



Call to Arms.* — Hon. Caleb Lyon. 

Fellow countrymen, and men of the empire state ! 
Before me I see the stalworth arms of those who are 
ready and willing to lay their lives down in behalf of the 
honor and dignity of your country. Yes, you are willing 

* Delivered at the great Union meeting in New York, 1S61. 



PATRIOTIC AND HEROIC ELOQUENCE. 67 

to sacrifice your lives on the altar of your country for 
your country's cause. Many years ago there went forth 
a great apostle, who preached a crusade to the people. 
He endeavored to raise followers to his banner, but after 
two years' preaching he did not raise one-third of the 
men he required to vindicate the Holy Sepulchre. Peter 
the Hermit, preached for two years, and in preaching he 
at last succeeded in raising an army for the rescue and 
defence of the sepulchre of Christ ; and now it devolves 
upon us, in our turn, to take our part in this great strug- 
gle to save the sepulchre of Washington from desecra- 
tion. You are called on to stop the parricidal hands, 
and rise in your herculean might to save that sepulchre 
and your country. Men of New York, this is a proud 
day for you. Your cheers will strike terror to the dwell- 
ers of the South, and tell them that you are determined 
to support that Union which your forefathers built on so 
lasting a basis. The men of Massachusetts, from Boston, 
were fired at by the infuriated mob, incited by men who 
had boasted for the last ten years that they would rather 
" rule in hell than serve in heaven." General Jackson, 
in his day, regretted that he did not hang Calhoun, and 
was sorry that he was not the man to serve the pro- 
cess to arrest him. We are now called upon to teach 
the people of the South a lesson, and I hope it will be a 
salutary one — one which they will not soon forget, but 
that they will remember as long as the stars burn in the 
sky. 



The Revolutionary Battle of Eutaw. — W. Gilmore 
Simms. 

Hark 1 'tis the voice of the mountain, 

And it speaks to our heart in its pride, 
As it tells of the bearing of heroes 

Who compassed its summits and died I 



PATRIOTIC AND HEROIC ELOQUENCE. 

How they gathered to strife as the eagles, 
"When the fOeman had clambered the height ? 

How, with scent keen and eager as beagles, 
They hunted him down for the fight ! 

Hurrah I 

Hark I through the gorge of the valley, 

"Tis the bugle that tells of the foe ; 
Our own quickly sounds for the rally, 

And we snatch down the rifle and go. 
As the hunter who hears of the panther, 

Bach arms him and leaps to his steed, 
Eides forth through the desolate antre, 

"With his knife and his rifle at need. 

Prom a thousand deep gorges they gather, 

From the cot lowly perched by the rill, 
The cabin half hid in the heather, 

'Neath the crag where the eagle keeps still ; 
Bach lonely at first in his roaming, 

Till the vale to the sight opens fair, 
And he sees the low cot through the gloaming, 

When Ms bugle gives tongue to the air. 

Thus a thousand brave hunters assemble 

For the hunt of the insolent foe, 
And soon shall his myrmidons tremble 

'Neath the shock of the thunder-bolt's blow, 
Down the lone heights now wind they together, 

As the mountain-brooks flow to the vale, 
And, now, as they group on the heather, 

The keen scout delivers his tale. 

" The British — the tories are on us, 

And now is the moment to prove 
To the women whose virtues have won us, 

That our virtues are worthy their love ! 
They have swept the vast valleys below us, 

With fire, to the hills from the sea. ; 
And here would they seek to o'erthrow us 

In a realm which our eagle makes free !" 



PATRIOTIC AND HEROIC ELOQUENCE. 69 

No war-council suffered to trifle 

With the hours devote to the deed ; 
Swift followed the grasp of the rifle, 

Swift followed the bound to the steed ; 
And soon, to the eyes of our yeomen, 

All panting with rage at the sight, 
Gleamed the long wavy tents of the foeman, 

As he lay in his camp on the height. 

Grim dashed they away as they bounded, 

The hunters to hem in the prey, 
And with Deckard's long rifles surrounded, 

Then the British rose fast to the fray ; 
And never, with arms of more vigor, 

Did their bayonets press through the strife, 
"Where, with every swift pull of the trigger, 

The sharp-shooters dashed out a life ! 

'Twas the meeting of eagles and lions, 

'Twas the rushing of tempests and waves. 
Insolent triumph 'gainst patriot defiance, 

Born freemen 'gainst sycophant slaves ; 
Scotch Ferguson sounding his whistle, 

As from danger to danger he flies, 
Feels the moral that lies in Scotcli thistle, 

With its " touch me who dare 1" and he dies ! 

An hour, and the battle is over, 

The eagles are rending the prey ; 
The serpents seek flight into cover, 

But the terror still stands in the way ; 
More dreadful the doom that on treason 

Avenges the wrongs of the state ; 
And the oak-tree for many a season 

Bears its fruit for the vultores of fate ! 
Hurrah ! 



70 PATRIOTIC AND HEKOIC ELOQUENCE. 



Washington to be Defended — Secession to be 
Crushed.* — Hon. H. J. Raymond. 

Thousands will rise and rush to the rescue of the 
capital, and to keep it from the possession of the rebels 
who have made piracy their watchword, and who com- 
menced their present work with plunder, and who have 
adopted as a basis of their action and of their power, 
plunder and arson, and with the weapons stolen from 
the government have aimed an assassin blow at the heart 
of the republic. What we want is, that a terrible blow 
be struck, and that it will be felt by those who have 
strongly provoked it. They have already ascertained 
that they cannot longer trust to one great hope they 
had in their enterprise. They had counted confidently 
on the divisions of the North. They believed that they 
would be perfectly safe in marching an army to Wash- 
ington, and that in doing so, they would receive support 
from this city. This reliance of theirs only shows them 
now how little they understood what the American heart 
is made of, whether that heart beats in the city of New 
York or in the western prairies. It shows they know 
nothing of liberty, or the impulses of liberty. It shows 
that they know nothing of the attachment of the people 
to the government — to that government under which we 
have grown great, and mighty, and prosperous, a gov- 
ernment which gave to the South itself its only title to 
consideration among the nations of the earth. I have 
nothing further to say, but what I have already an- 
nounced, that the Baltic sails to-morrow ; and I trust 
that you will all rush to the rescue, and preserve the 
capital, and prevent its falling into the hands of the bar- 
barians who threaten to destroy it. The South may rest 

* Delivered at the great Union meeting in New Turk. 1SC1. 



l'ATKIOTIC AND HEROIC ELOQUENCE. 71 

assured that the enterprise undertaken by her cannot 
succeed, and cannot long run on. They will learn that 
it is one thing to take a people and a government by 
surprise, but that it is quite another thing to wage a war 
of despotism over thirty millions of people. What have 
the secessionists done toward human liberty ? What 
sort of a government have they established ? A govern- 
ment of force, a government of despotism. Jefferson 
Davis is to-day as pure and as unmitigated and complete 
a despot over those he rules as any who sits upon any 
throne of Europe. If he gets possession of Washington, 
if he is allowed to form a government, it will be such a 
government as the people will have as little to do with 
as possible. No; but if he gets possession of the capital, 
one hundred thousand men will rush to the rescue and 
sweep rebellion from the head-quarters of the govern- 
ment. He will find that the heart of the American peo- 
ple is irrevocably fixed upon preserving the republic. I 
heard an anecdote to-day from Major Anderson, which 
may interest you, and at the same time illustrate this 
position. During the attack on Fort Sumter a report 
came here that the flag on the morning of the fight was 
half-mast. I asked him if that was true, and he said 
there was not a word of truth in the report. He said 
that during the firing one of the halyards was shot away, 
and the flag, in consequence, dropped down a few feet. 
The rope caught in the staff", and could not be reached, 
so that the flag could not be either lowered or hoisted, 
and, said the major : " God Almighty nailed that flag to 
the flag-mast, and I could not have lowered it if I tried." 
Yes, fellow-citizens, God Almighty has nailed that re- 
splendent flag to its mast, and if the South dares to 
march upon Washington, they will find that it cannot 
be taken down. No, not by all the powers they can col- 
lect. No ! they will find that that sacred sword which 
defends and strikes for human rights — that sword which 



72 PATRIOTIC AND HEROIC ELOQUENCE. 

Cromwell wielded, and which our fathers brought into 
the contest, and which made us a nation — will be taken 
once more from its scabbard to fight the battle of liberty 
against rebellion and treason. 



It is Great for our Country to Die. — J. G. 
Percival. 

Oh ! it is great for our country to die where ranks are contending : 
Bright is the wreath of our fame ; glory awaits us for ages — 

Glory that never is dim, shining on with light never ending — 
Glory that never shall fade, never, oh never, away. 

Oh ! it is sweet for our country to die : how fondly reposes 
"Warrior youth on his bier, wet by the tears of his love ; 

Wet by a mother's warm tears : they crown him with garlands of 
roses ; 
Weep, and then joyously turn, bright where he triumphs above. 

Oh 1 then how great for our country to die, in the front rank to perish ; 

Firm with one breast to the foe, victory's shout in our ear ; 
Long they our statues shall crown ; in songs our memories cherish : 

"We shall look forth from our heaven, pleased the sweet music to 
hear. 



The United States Superior to a Single State.* — 
Professor Mitchell. 

I am infinitely indebted to you for this evidence of 
your kindness. I know I am a stranger among you. I 
have been in your state but a little while ; but I am with 
you, heart and soul, and mind and strength, and all that 
I have and am belongs to you and our common country, 
and to nothing else. I have been announced to you as a 

* Delivered at the great Union meeting in New York, 1861. 



PATKIOTIC ASl) HEEOIC ELOQUENCE. id 

citizen of Kentucky. Once I was, because I was born 
there. I love my native state, as you love your native 
state. I love my adopted state of Ohio, as you love 
your adopted state, if such you have ; but, my friends, I 
am not a citizen now of any state. I owe allegiance to 
no state, and never did, and, God helping me, I never 
will. I owe allegiance to the government of the United 
States. A poor boy, working my way with my own 
hands, at the age of twelve turned out to take care of 
myself as best I could, and beginning by earning four 
dollars per month, I worked my way onward until this 
glorious government gave me a chance at the military 
academy at West Point. There I landed with a knap- 
sack on my back, and, I tell you God's truth, just a quar- 
ter of a dollar in my pocket. There I swore allegiance 
to the government of the United States. I did not ab- 
jure the love of my own state, nor of my adopted state, 
but all over that rose proudly triumphant and predomi- 
nant my love for our common country. And now to-day 
that common country is assailed, and, alas ! alas ! that I 
am compelled to say it, it is assailed in some sense by my 
own countrymen. My father and my mother were from 
old Virginia, and my brothers and sisters from old Ken- 
tucky. I loA^e them all ; I love them dearly. I have my 
brothers and friends down in the South now, united to me 
by the fondest ties of love and affection. I would take 
them in my arms to-day with all the love that God has 
put into this heart. But if I found them in arms I would 
be compelled to smite them down. You have found offi- 
cers of the army who have been educated by the govern- 
ment, who have drawn their support from the govern- 
ment for long years, who, when called upon by their coun- 
try to stand for the constitution and for the right, have 
basely, ignominiously, and traitorously either resigned 
their commissions, or deserted to traitors, and rebels, and 
enemies. What means all this ? How can it be possible 
4 



74: PATRIOTIC AND HEKOIC ELOQUENCE. 

that men should act in this way ? There is no question 
but one. If we ever had a government and constitution, 
or if we ever lived under such, have we ever recognized 
the supremacy of right? I say, in God's name why not 
recognize it now ? Why not to-day ? Why not for- 
ever ? Suppose those friends of ours from old Ireland, 
suppose he who has made himself one of us, when a war 
should break out against his own country should say: 
"I cannot fight against my own countrymen." Is he a 
citizen of the United States ? They are no countrymen 
longer when war breaks out. The rebels and the traitors 
in the South we must set aside ; they are not our friends. 
When they come to their senses we will receive them 
with open arms ; but till that time, while they are trail- 
ing our glorious banner in the dust, when they scorn it, 
condemn it, curse it, and trample it underfoot, then I 
must smite. In God's name I will smite, and as long as I 
have strength I will do it. Oh, listen to me, listen to me ! 
I know these men ; I know their courage ; I have been 
among them ; I have been with them; I have been reared 
with them ; they have courage, and do not you pretend 
to think they have not. I tell you what it is, it is no 
child's play you are entering upon. They will fight, and 
with a determination and a power which is irresistible. 
Make up your mind to it. Let every man put his life in 
his hand and say: "There is the altar of my country; there 
I will sacrifice my life." I for one will lay my life down. 
It is not mine any longer. Lead me to the conflict. 
Place me where I can do my duty. There I am ready 
to go, I care not where it leads me. My friends, that is 
the spirit that was in this city on yesterday. I am told 
of an incident that occurred which drew the tears to my 
eyes, and yet I am not much used to the melting mood. 
I am told of a man in your city who has a beloved wife 
and two children, dej ending upon his personal labor 
day by day for their support, He went home and said : 



PATRIOTIC AND HEROIC ELOQUENCE. 75 

" Wife, I feel it is my duty to enlist and fight for my 
country." "That's just what I've been thinking of, too," 
said she ; " God bless you, and may you come back with- 
out harm ; but if you die in defence of the country, the 
God of the widow and the fatherless will take care of 
me and my children." That same wife came to your 
city. She knew precisely where her husband was to pass 
as he marched away. She took her position on the pave- 
ment, and finding a flag she begged leave just to stand 
beneath those sacred folds and take a last fond look on 
him whom she, by possibility, might never see again. 
The husband marched down the street ; their eyes met ; 
a sympathetic flash went from heart to heart ; she gave 
one shout and fell senseless upon the pavement, and there 
she lay for not less than thirty minutes in a swoon. It 
seemed to be the departing of her life. But all the 
sensibility was sealed up. It was all sacrifice. She was 
ready to meet this tremendous sacrifice upon which we 
have entered, and I trust you are all ready. I am ready. 
God help me to do my duty. I am ready to fight in the 
ranks or out of the ranks. Having been educated in 
the academy, having been in the army seven years, hav- 
ing served as commander of a volunteer company for 
ten years, and having served as an adjutant-general, I 
feel I am ready for something. I only ask to be per- 
mitted to act ; and in God's name give me something to 
do. 



The Mothers of our Forest-Land. — William D. 
Gallagher. 

The mothers of our forest-land! 

Stout-hearted dames were they 
"With nerve to wield the battle-brand, 

And join the border-fray. 



76 PATRIOTIC AN'D HEROIC ELOQUENCE. 

Our rough land had no braver, 
In its days of blood and strife — 

Aye ready for severest toil 
Aye free to peril life. 

The mothers of our forest-land ! 

On old Kentucky's soil 
How shared they, with each dauntless band, 

War's tempest and life's toil! 
They shrank not from the foemen — 

They quailed not in the fight — 
But cheered their husbands through the day, 

And soothed them through the night. 

The mothers of our forest-land ! 

Their bosoms pillowed men ! 
And proud were they by such to stand 

In hammock, fort, or glen, 
To load the sure old rifle — 

To run the leaden ball — 
To watch a battling husband's place, 

And fill it should he falL 



Address to the Graduating Class oe Columbia 
C ollege — 1 861. — Preside nt King. 

Young Ge2vTleaiex : I salute you as trained athletes, 
just entering upon the strifes of life. If we have at all 
succeeded with you in our efforts at education, you have 
learned how to use your faculties. It will now devolve 
upon you to make their use subservient to the highest 
aims and the largest good. So only shall you prove 
yourselves worthy of your alma mater — worthy of your 
glorious country. 

Life is real — life is earnest, to all and at all times ; but 
at the particular juncture at which it is your fortune to 
be called to act, it is more than usually real and earnest 



PATRIOTIC AND HEROIC ELOQUENCE. 77 

— and it is this exceptional condition of affairs that seems 
to demand from me at this time and on this, our most 
solemn academic exercises, a plain and frank expression 
of opinion, as to matters concerning which it is criminal 
not to have an opinion, and cowardly not to express it 
when fitting occasion offers. 

You put on the garment of manhood, and assume its 
obligations in the midst of the most wanton, wicked, un- 
provoked and unpardonable rebellion that has been wit- 
nessed in the annals of the human race. It has no parallel 
but in the rebellion of the fallen angels ; and it has the 
same source, disappointed ambition and malignant hate. 
Against the most beneficial government, the most equal 
laws, and a system carrying within itself a recognized 
and peaceful mode of adjusting every real or imaginary 
wrong or hardship, a portion of the people of the United 
States — the least civilized, the least educated, the least 
industrious, without a single wrong specified on the part 
of the national government — have risen in rebellion 
against it, robbing its treasuries, and even its hospitals ; 
firing upon and treading underfoot the flag of our coun- 
try ; menacing its capital with armed hordes, led by the 
double-dyed traitors who, educated at the cost of the na- 
tion, and sworn to defend its laws, have deserted in the 
hour of need, and turned their arms against their nursing 
mother; and appealing to all the scoundrels of the world 
to come and take service under the rebel flag, against the 
commerce of the United States. 

Honor, loyalty, truth, stood aghast for a while incredu- 
lously in the preseuce of this enormous crime ; but when 
Sumter fell the free people of this nation rose — yes ! rose 
as no like uprising has been witnessed before — and now 
who shall stay the avenging arm ? Who, with traitor lips 
shall talk of compromise, or with shaking knees clamor 
for peace ? Compromise with what ? — peace with whom ? 

It is no question of this or that system of policy — of 



78 PATRIOTIC AND HEEOIC ELOQUENCE. 

free-trade or tariff, of slavery or anti-slavery — it is a ques- 
tion of existence. To be or not to be — it is all there. 
There is no such thing as half being and half not being. 
Either we are a nation, or a band of anarchical outlaws. 
A grand continental Anglo-Saxon republic, such as our 
fathers made, one and indivisible, e pluribus unum, un- 
der a constitution equal for all and supreme over all — 
or an accidental assemblage of petty, jealous, barbarous, 
warring tribes, who acknowledge no law but the sword, 
aud from among whom the sword will not depart. 

My young friends, you enter upon life at the very 
moment this great question is under the issue of war. 
Shrink not back from it. We must be decided now and 
forever. The baleful doctrine of secession must be final- 
ly and absolutely renounced. The poor quibble of double 
allegiance must be disavowed. An American — and not 
a New Yorker, nor a Virginian — is the noble title by 
which we are to live, and which you, my young friends, 
must, in your respective spheres, contribute to make live, 
however it may cost in blood and money. 

Go forth, then, my young friends — go forth as citizens 
of the great continental American republic — to which 
your first, your constant, your latest hopes in life should 
attach — and abating no jot of obedience to municipal or 
state authority within the respective limits of each — 
bear yourselves always, and everywhere, as Americans — 
as fellow-countrymen of Adams, and Ellsworth, and Jay, 
and Paterson, and Carroll, and Washington, and Pinck- 
ney — as heirs of the glories of Bunker Hill and Saratoga, 
and Monmouth and Yorktown, and Eutaw Springs and 
New Orleans, and suffer no traitor hordes to despoil you 
of such rich inheritance, or of so grand and glorious a 
country. 



patriotic and heroic eloquence. 79 

Commodore Perry after the Battle of Lake Erie. 
— Hon. George Bancroft. 

As the cannon ceased, an awful stillness set in; nothing 
was heard, but the feeble groans of the wounded, or the 
dash of oars as boats glided from one vessel to another. 

Possession having been taken of the conquered fleet, 
at four o'clock Perry sent an express to Harrison with 
these words : 

" Dear General : We have met the enemy, and they 
are ours ; two ships, two brigs, one schooner, and one 
sloop." 

As he wrote to the secretary of the navy, a religious 
awe seemed to come over him, at his wonderful preser- 
vation in the midst of great and long-continued danger ; 
and he attributed his signal victory to the pleasure of the 
Almighty. 

It was on board the Lawrence that Perry then received 
the submission of the captives. This was due to the 
sufferings of her crew, to the self-sacrificing courage of 
the unnamed martyrs who still lay unburied on her deck, 
to the crowd of wounded, who thought their trials well 
rewarded by the issue. The witnesses to the act of the 
British officers in tendering their swords were chiefly the 
dead and the wounded, and the scene of sorrow temper- 
ed and subdued the exultation of triumph. 

The conqueror bade his captives retain their side-arms; 
and added every just and unaffected expression of cour- 
tesy, mercy, and solicitude for their wounded. 

"When twilight fell, the mariners who had fallen on 
board the Lawrence, and had lain in heaps on the side 
of the ship opposite to the British, were sewn up in their 
hammocks, and, with a cannon-ball at their feet, were 
dropped one by one into the lake. 

At last, but not till his day's work was done, exhausted 



80 PATRIOTIC AND HEKOIC ELOQUENCE. 

nature claimed rest, and Perry, turning into his cot, slept 
as sweetly and quietly as a child. 

The dawn of morning revealed the deadly fierceness 
of the combat. Spectators from the island found the 
sides of the Lawrence completely riddled by shot from 
the long guns of the British ; her deck was thickly cov- 
ered with clots of blood ; fragments of those who had 
been struck — hair, brains, broken pieces of bones — were 
still sticking to the rigging and sides. The sides of the 
Detroit and Queen Charlotte were shattered from bow to 
stern ; on their larboard side there was hardly a hand's 
breadth free from the dent of a shot. Balls, cannister, 
and grape were found lodged in their bulwarks ; their 
masts were so much injured that they rolled out in the 
first high wind. 

The loss of the British, as reported by Barclay, amount- 
ed to forty-one killed, of whom three were officers ; and 
ninety-four wounded, of whom nine were officers. Of 
the Americans, twenty-seven were killed and ninety-six 
wounded. Of these, twenty-one were killed and sixty- 
one wounded in the Lawrence, and about twenty more 
were wounded in the Niagara after she received Perry 
on board. 

An opening on the margin of Put-in-Bay was selected 
for the burial-place of the officers who had fallen. The 
day was serene, the breezes hushed, the waters unruffled 
by a wavelet. The men of both fleets mourned to- 
gether; as the boats moved slowly in procession, the 
music played dirges to which the oars kept time ; the 
flags showed the sign of sorrow ; solemn minute guns 
were heard from the ships. The spot where the funeral 
train went on shore Avas a wild solitude ; the Americans 
and British walked in alternate couples to the graves, 
like men who, in the presence of eternity, renewed the 
relation of brothers and members of one human family, 
and the bodies of the dead were likewise borne alone: 



PATRIOTIC AND HEROIC ELOQUENCE. 81 

and buried alternately, English and American side by 
side, and undistinguished. 

The wounded of both fleets, meeting with equal assid- 
uous care, were sent to Erie, where Barclay was seen, 
with tottering steps, supported between Harrison and 
Perry, as he walked from the landing-place to his quar- 
ters. 

Perry crowned his victory by his modesty, forbearing 
to place his own services in their full light, and more 
than just to others. When, in the following year, he 
was reAvarded by promotion to the rank of captain, he 
who had never murmured at promotion made over his 
own head, hesitated about accepting a preferment which 
might wound his seniors. 

The personal conduct of Perry throughout the tenth 
of September was perfect. His keenly sensitive nature 
never interfered with his sweetness of manner, his forti- 
tude, the soundness of his judgment, the promptitude of 
his decision. In a state of impassioned activity, his plans 
were wisely framed, were instantly modified as circum- 
stances changed, and were executed with entire coolness 
and self-possession. The mastery of the lakes, the re- 
covery of Detroit and the far west, the capture of the 
British army in the peninsula of upper Canada, were the 
immediate fruits of his success. The imagination of the 
American people was taken captive by the singular inci- 
dents of a battle in which every thing seemed to have 
flowed from the personal prowess of one man ; and wher- 
ever he came the multitude went out to bid him welcome. 
Washington Irving, the chosen organ, as it were, of his 
country, predicted his ever-increasing fame. Rhode Isl- 
and cherishes his glory as her own ; Erie keeps the tra- 
dition that its harbor was his ship-yard, its forests the 
storehouse for the frames of his chief vessels, its houses 
the hospitable shelter of the wounded among his crews ; 
Cleveland graces her public square with a statue of the 
4* 



82 PATRIOTIC AND HEROIC ELOQUENCE. 

hero, wrought of purest marble, and looking out upon the 
scene of his glory ; the tale follows the emigrant all the 
way up the straits, and to the head of Lake Superior. 
Perry's career was short and troubled ; he lives in the 
memory of his countrymen, clothed in perpetual youth, 
just as he stood when he first saw that his efforts were 
crowned with success, and could say in his heart : " We 

HAVE MET THE ENEMY AND THEY ARE OURS." 



Criminality of Treason. — New York Evening Post. 

Many people apprehend that some of our authorities, 
both military and civil, entertain a wholly inadequate 
conception of the real nature and hideous wickedness of" 
the crime of treason. But the truth is, we are so unused 
to the offence in this country, that we do not any of us 
readily estimate its atrocity. Like children that have 
never seen a serpent or a wolf, and who are not aware 
how poisonous the fangs of the one or how murderous 
the teeth of the other, we require actual experience to 
teach us all the danger and evil of the deed. 

The ancient nations, whose peace was often attacked 
in this manner, gave it a bad pre-eminence over all other 
crimes. They regarded it not only as the gravest of 
offences in its own nature, but as displaying the vilest 
persona] qualities on the part of the offender. It was for 
this reason that it was punished — first, by inflicting the 
severest penalties upon the criminal himself, and second- 
ly, by branding his posterity forever. A person so cor- 
rupt as to be a traitor, they said, must transmit his 
qualities to his descendants. Besides, he who plots to 
disturb a nation's tranquillity, and to overthrow its con- 
stitution, commits a crime against posterity, and ought 
to suffer in his offspring. While humanity shudders at 



PATRIOTIC AND HEROIC ELOQUENCE. 83 

tlie severity of the argument, it is still useful to recall 
it, in order to show the sense of those nations who have- 
actually suffered from this kind of malice. 

The common law punishment of treason, so terrible 
and apparently barbarous — a punishment originating in 
the middle ages and continuing in substance upon the 
English statute-book to the present time — marks the ab- 
horrence with which this crime was viewed. Its penal- 
ties may sleep, it is true, at the will of the monarch, but 
they exist, and can at any moment be applied. " Trai- 
tors," says Coke, citing Scriptural authority, " are to be 
drawn to the place of execution ; so was Joab. They 
are to be hung ; so was Bigthana, as stated in the book 
of Esther. They are to be disembowelled ; so was Ju- 
das. Their hearts are to be pierced while living ; so 
with Absalom. They are to be beheaded ; so was She- 
ba, the son of Bichri. The blood of their posterity is 
corrupted so that they cannot inherit. So it is written 
in the one hundred and ninth Psalm, Let his children be 
fatherless and his wife a widow ; let them be vagabonds 
and beg; and, in the next generation let his name be 
blotted out," 

The penalties for this crime, like those of most other 
crimes, are not, under the mollifying influences of Chris- 
tianity and civilization, so aggravated as they were. 
Yet the enormity of the offence would seem to have 
increased with the progress of society. In rude and bar- 
barous ages, when nearly every man, if not a warrior, 
went armed ; when the state was either an oppressive, 
or at best an unstable and impotent institution ; when 
social relations were few and simple ; when there was 
little accumulated property to be lost ; little or no com- 
merce to be destroyed, and when domestic life possessed 
none of that sanctity which now cleaves to the home and 
the hearth-stone — an assault upon the public order and 
peace was a matter of comparatively little importance. 



8i PATRIOTIC AND HEROIC ELOQUENCE. 

All society was so insecure that an invasion of it pro- 
duced none of the terrible consequences which the same 
deed would now do. Not only are our communities 
more numerous, but they are less prepared for defence 
against internal treachery ; they embody vast amounts 
of wealth, which a breath of sedition may dissipate ; their 
relations of man to man are more complicated and more 
vital, and a rupture of them consequently more destruc- 
tive ; and to excite a serious alarm now for their tran- 
quillity is far more pernicious than open war upon them 
would have been some centuries ago. Treason produces 
ten thousand times the ruin, the unhappiness, the terror, 
in England or the United States, that it would in Egypt, 
or Turkey, or even Russia. Of what millions upon mil- 
lions of wealth have not the Southern traitors occasioned 
the loss ; but who shall estimate the degree of their 
iniquity, when the precious lives spent by war and dis- 
ease, when the breaking of fraternal ties, and when the 
ill-feelings engendered in once friendly communities, shall 
be taken into the account? The villain who demands 
your purse or fires your house commits a dreadful indi- 
vidual wrong, but he is infinitely less to be dreaded than 
the grander criminal who overturns all the securities of 
social order, and assails the very life of the state. 

We cannot, nor is it desirable that we should, visit 
this offence, the mischiefs of which are so greatly aggra- 
vated, with the ferocity of punishment formerly in vogue. 
We cannot, in this age, revive the old barbarous methods 
of capital executions. They have passed away with their 
day. But it is none the less important to mark our sense 
of the awful nature of the crime, and of our utter detes- 
tation of the criminals. They should not be treated as 
mere political offenders, to be dismissed with a gentle 
reprimand. They have made needless and wanton war 
on the best of governments ; they have arrested the pros- 
perity of the most peaceful of societies ; they have caused 



1 



PATRIOTIC AND HEROIC ELOQUENCE. 85 

the sacrifice of thousands of harmless and nohle lives; 
and justice to the integrity of our laws, to the instincts 
of the human heart, to the future well-being of myriads 
of people, demands some signal exemplifications of our 
estimate of their malignity. 



The American Statesman and Literature. 

Above this crowd, and beyond them all, stands that 
character which I trust many of you will become — a real 
American Statesman. For the high and holy duty of 
serving his country, he begins by deep and solitary stud- 
ies of its constitution and laws, and all its great interests. 
These studies are extended over the whole circumference 
of knowledge — all the depths and shoals of human pas- 
sions are sounded to acquire the mastery over them. The 
solid structure is then strengthened and embellished by 
familiarity with ancient and modern languages — with his- 
tory, which supplies the treasures of old experience — 
with eloquence, which gives them attraction — and with 
the whole of that wide miscellaneous literature, which 
spreads over them all a perpetual freshness and variety. 
These acquirements are sometimes reproached by the 
ignorant as being pedantry. They would be pedantic if 
they intruded into public affairs inappropriately ; but in 
subordination to the settled habits of the individual, they 
add grace to the strength of his general character, as the 
foliage ornaments the fruit that ripens beneath it. They 
are again denounced as weakening the force of native 
talent, and contrasted disparagingly Avith what are called 
rough and strong-minded men. But roughness is no 
necessary attendant upon strength ; the true steel is not 
weakened by the highest polish — just as the scimitar of 



86 PATRIOTIC AND HEROIC ELOQUENCE. 

Damascus, more flexible in the hands of its master, in- 
flicts a keener wound than the coarsest blade. So far 
from impairing the native strength of the mind, at every 
moment this knowledge is available. In the play of hu- 
man interests and passions, the same causes ever influence 
the same results ; what has been, will again be, and there 
is no contingency of affairs in which the history of the 
past may not shed its warning light on the future. The 
modern languages bring him into immediate contact with 
the living science and gifted minds of his remote contem- 
poraries. All the forms of literature, which are but the 
varied modifications in which the human intellect devel- 
ops itself, contribute to reveal to him its structure and 
its passions ; and these endowments can be displayed in 
a statesman's career only by eloquence — itself a master 
power, attained only by cultivation. For an idle waste of 
words — at once a political evil and a social wrong — his 
only remedy is study. From study he learns that the last 
degree of refinement is simplicity ; the highest eloquence 
the plainest ; the most effective style — the pure, severe 
and vigorous manner, of which the great masters are the 
best teachers. 



Character of William Penn. — Duponceau. 

William Penn stands the first among the lawgivers 
whose names and deeds are recorded in history. Shall 
we compare him with Lycurgus, Solon, Romulus, those 
founders of military commonwealths, who organized their 
citizens in dreadful array against the rest of their species, 
taught them to consider their fellow-men as barbarians, 
and themselves as alone worthy to rule over the earth ? 
What benefit did mankind derive from their boasted in- 
stitutions ? Interrogate the shades of those who fell in 



PATRIOTIC AND HEROIC ELOQUENCE. 8 1 

the mighty contests between Athens and Lacedamion, 
between Carthage and Rome, and between Rome and 
the rest of the universe. 

But see William Penn, with weaponless hand, sitting 
down peaceably with his followers in the midst of savage 
nations, whose only occupation was shedding the blood 
of their fellow-men, disarming them by his justice, and 
teaching them, for the first time, to view a stranger with- 
out distrust. See them bury their tomahawks in his 
presence, so deep that man shall never be able to find 
them again. See them under the shade of the thick 
groves of Coaquannoek extend the bright chain of friend- 
ship, and solemnly promise to preserve it as long as the 
sun and moon shall endure. See him then with his com- 
panions establishing his commonwealth on the sole basis 
of religion, morality and universal love, and adopting as 
the fundamental maxim of his government the rule handed 
down to us from heaven, Glory to God on high, and on 
earth peace, and good will to all men. 

Here was a spectacle for the potentates of the earth 
to look upon, an example for them to imitate. But the 
potentates of the earth did not see, or if they saw, they 
turned away their eyes from the sight ; they did not hear, 
or if they heard, they shut their ears against the voice, 
which called out to them from the wilderness, 

Discere justitiam moniti et non temnere Divos. 

The character of William Penn alone sheds a never- 
fading lustre on our history. 



PATRIOTIC AND HEROIC ELOQUENCE. 



Columbia. — -George W. Mliott. 

America ! Home of the free ! 

To the star of thy liberties bright, 
Turn the eyes of the millions who flee, 

For a rescue, from Tyranny's night. 
Though thy magical name and thy ensign unfurled 
Now enkindle both envy and joy in the world, 
Tet the Star Spangled Banner, the flag of the brave, 
Where 'tis flung to the breeze, there it ever shall wave I 

Chorus: 
Tet the Star Spangled Banner, the flag of the brave, 
Where 'tis flung to the breeze, there it ever shall wave I 

Columbia, queen of the land, 

From the heart of the nation, her throne, 
Has proclaimed this benignant command — ♦ 

" Let the will of my people be known ! 
They are free from the scourge of oppression's fell rod ; 
They are free, evermore, in the worship of God ! 
And the Star Spangled Banner, the flag of the brave, 
O'er the glorious Union forever shall wave I" 

Chorus : 
And the Star Spangled Banner, the flag of the brave, 
O'er the glorious Union forever shall wave ! 

America 1 Home of the free ! 

'Tis thy dear starry emblem that holds 
The enchantment that binds us to thee — 

All our fortunes with thine in its folds ! 
On the wretch who its honor or glory would pall, 
Shall the lightning-winged vengeance of patriots fall ! 
Yes ! the Star Spangled Banner, the flag of the brave, 
Where 'tis flung to the breeze, there unsullied shall wave ! 

Chorus : 
Yes ! the Star Spangled Banner, the flag of the brave, 
Where 'tis flung to the breeze, there unsullied shall wave I 



PATRIOTIC AND HEROIC ELOQUENCE. 89 



The President oe the United States — what he 

OUGHT TO BE. Holl. L. McLaiU. 

A chief-magistrate of the Union should look to noble 
objects, and consider himself called to a high destiny. I 
would have him rouse his spirit and expand his mind 
to the elevation and grandeur of his important trust ; I 
would have him to realize that he is the governor of a 
great, free, and prosperous people ; various in their habits, 
opinions, and occupations, but all pursuing the general 
end of human action — the happiness of themselves and 
then- posterity, and all equally entitled to the protection 
and favor of their government. I would have him to 
purify himself from all temptation to proscription or in- 
tolerance, and all vindictive or personal suggestions, and 
to maintain himself at a sightless distance above the low 
intrigues and bitterness of faction. I Avould have him 
thoroughly to understand the spirit and import of the 
constitution of our country ; to consider all its function- 
aries entitled to equal respect with himself; to preserve 
sacred the just balance and apportionment of power 
among the various departments, and, in all cases of di- 
versity of opinion — whether between the heads of de- 
partments or among the people at large — to maintain a 
wise moderation and forbearance, and to endeavor to 
lead the jarring parties to entertain respect for each 
other, and to co-operate for the common good. " I 
would have him to think of fame as well as of applause, 
and prefer that which to be enjoyed must be given, to 
that which may be bought ; to consider his administra- 
tion as a single day in the great year of government, but 
as a day that is affected by those which went before, and 
that must affect those which are to follow." I would have 
him to consider the constitution and the laws as the sole 
rnle of his conduct, neither stretching nor warping them 



90 PATRIOTIC AND HEROIC ELOQUENCE. 

either to enlarge his own power or to abridge that of the 
co-ordinate departments, or of the people. To usurp no 
authority inconsistent with their spirit, nor to abuse that 
which they confer. I would have him diligently to in- 
form himself of all the great and diversified interests of 
this vast and growing country, and so to succor the va- 
rious branches of enterprise as to crown the whole with 
prosperity. I would have him to reflect that amidst 
the diversity of interests and multifarious concerns, both 
foreign and domestic, of the nation, questions will con- 
stantly arise necessarily eliciting various opinions among 
his countrymen. These I would have him to treat with 
respect and indulgence, even when they differ from his 
own, but by no means to make them objects of anger and 
punishment. I would have him not only to tolerate, but 
to encourage, all decent and respectful examination into 
his public policy and official conduct. I would have him 
to keep the offices of the government above the reach of 
the flatterer and the demagogue, and never to bestow 
them as rewards for mere party service ; to bring to his 
aid in the other trusts of the government the soundest 
patriotism, the most elevated and various intellect, the 
most enlarged capacity that his country affords ; and lest 
in seeking for such qualities his range of observation 
might be too circumscribed, I would have him to main- 
tain such relations with all classes and portions of his 
countrymen, that the scope of his selection might have 
no other limit than the welfare of the commonwealth. 
Such is my idea of a virtuous, enlightened, and patriotic 
chief-magistrate, fit to administer the government of a 
free and united people. Such a one it may be difficult, 
perhaps impossible, to find, though it is presumed no one 
will deny that it is desirable and even a duty to approach 
as near as possible to a perfect government, and social 
happiness under it. The only question is, how near it 
may be practicable for us to come ; and all must admit 



PATRIOTIC AND HEROIC ELOQUENCE. 91 

that we shall approach the nearer as the efforts of the 
people and the government shall concur for that object. 
Happily for our country we have one illustrious example, 
who, it would seem, had been given to us by Providence 
as an ever-living oracle, from whom we might, in all fu- 
ture times, refresh our minds with lessons of real wisdom 
and patriotism. Washington was the head of the nation, 
and not of a party ; and amid all the trials of his situa- 
tion, critical and complex as it certainly was, and amid 
the labors of organizing and conducting a new govern- 
ment, arduous as they were, beset also with the most 
dangerous of all jealousies, he made and preserved a 
united people, and finally retired from their service with 
greater character and more durable renown than he car- 
ried into it. This country has produced no second "Wash- 
ington ; and it may be feared that it will be long before 
it will. Nevertheless, it ought to be the fervent prayer 
of every true patriot, that that event may yet happen, 
and that its advent may be hastened, and that until it 
shall please Providence to raise up such another, we may 
constantly meditate upon his pure example, and that some 
one may yet be found who has so studied the model of 
that matchless patriot, as to be able to preside over a 
united people. 



True Dignity. — Owen Jones. 

Give me the man whose frontal tablet bold 

Bespeaks a lofty soul, with purpose firm ; 
Who would not bow before the idol gold, 

Nor basely tread upon the lowly worm; — 

"Who would not swerve from truth though hell should frown, 
And, threatening vengeance, open wide its jaws; 

Who would not barter for an empire's crown 
The smallest particle in freedom's cause. 



92 PATRIOTIC AND HEROIC ELOQUENCE. 

Givo me the man who honors worth alone, 

True worth, though found mid humble toil or want ; 

Who would denounce the tyrant on his throne, 
And look with scorn upon the sycophant. 

My soul is harrowed when I hear and see 

How traitors stand unscathed where patriots stood — 

How Treason lurks beside fair Liberty, 

And frowns on blessings bought with nations' blood. 

Oh ! speed the time when men shall cease to be 
The wretched counterfeits of God's design — 

When treason, plots, oppression, infamy, 
Shall cease, and man be noble, pure, divine 1 



Character of General Wlneield Scott. — Hon. J. T. 
Ileadley. 

The most striking points of General Scott's character 
stand out in bold relief. In so long and eventful a career, 
a man's character cannot be concealed. His actions re- 
veal it. Probably a more fearless man never lived. Like 
Bonaparte, he may be irritated and disturbed by trifles, 
but danger always tranquilizes him. Those who have 
been with him most, say that in the moment of greatest 
peril, his lip wears its serenest expression. It is in the 
thunder-crash of battle, when the brave battalions are 
linked in deadliest conflict, that his heart beats calmest. 
It is a little singular that the greatest warriors (not 
merely desperate fighters, but men fit to be leaders of 
armies) have been distinguished for more than ordinary 
humanity and tenderness of feeling. 

Murat, whose natural element seemed the smoke and 
carnage of battle, never drew his sword in combat, lest 
he should slay some one. Ney, who moved amid death 
like one above its power, was as simple and tender as a 



PATRIOTIC AND HEROIC ELOQUENCE. i)3 

child. The same is true of Scott. The sick and dis- 
tressed have not merely commanded his sympathy, but 
he has again and again risked his life to succor them. 
Stern, nay, almost tyrannical, as a disciplinarian, his 
heart as a man is filled with all generous emotions. He 
was in New York at the time of the Astor Place riot, 
and within hearing of the firing. As his practiced ear 
caught the regular volleys of the soldiers, he wrung his 
hands and walked the room in an agony of excitement, 
exclaiming : " They are firing volleys, they are shooting 
down citizens /" What an apparently strange contradic- 
tion ! This man, whose nerves seemed made of iron in 
battle, and who had galloped with the joy of the warrior 
for hours, amid a hail-storm of bullets, could not control 
his feeling when he knew the blood of American citizens 
was flowing in the streets of New York. But in the one 
case he acted as a commander whose business it was to 
conquer ; while here he was a man feeling for his fellow- 
man. That burst of feeling did him more honor than the 
greatest victory he ever gained. 

Scott is also distinguished for great tenacity of pur- 
pose. The desperate manner in which he clung to the 
height at Lundy's Lane — charging like fire, when but 
a quarter of his brigade was left, and crying out, as, 
mangled and bleeding, he was borne from the field: 
"Charge again'''' — reveals a strength and firmness of 
will that no earthly power can shake. Such a man is 
hard to beat. As a military chieftain, he probably has 
no superior, if equal, in the world. Place a hundred 
and fifty thousand American troops, drilled under his 
own supervision, in his hands, and the miracles of Na- 
poleon will be wrought over again. He possesses all 
the qualities necessary to make a great commander. 
Courage, coolness in the hour of danger, fertility of re- 
sources, extensive yet rapid combination, the power of 
covering a vast field of operations, yet losing none of its 



94 PATRIOTIC AND HEROIC ELOQUENCE. 

details, perfect control over his troops, tireless energy 
and great humanity, combine in him as they are rarely 
found in any man. Success cannot intoxicate him, nor 
defeat enervate him. Tempted by no sudden stroke of 
good fortune into rashness, he cannot be made listless by 
disappointment. A less nicely balanced character would 
never have carried us safely through the difficulties on 
our northern frontier. 

His life is singularly clear of moral blemishes. Noble 
and confiding, he has often been wronged, yet he never 
could be forced into low retaliation or soured into dis- 
trust of his fellow-man. While in Mexico, a friend 
warned him against an officer whom he suspected of 
being an enemy in disguise. "I cannot help it," said the 
general : " it has all my life been a positive luxury to me 
to confide in my fellow-man, and rather than give it up, 
I should prefer being stabbed under the fifth rib daily." 
The temptations which surround elevation to rank and 
power have never corrupted him ; and he is, at this day, 
as firm a friend of religion, temperance, and all the moral 
virtues, as though his life had been devoted solely to 
their inculcation. It is rare to see a long and public 
career so unstained by any vice. 



The Patriot's Battle Prayer. — John Critchley 
Prince. 

PARAPHRASED FROM THE GERMAN OP SCHILLER. 

Father of Life ! to Thee, to Thee, I call— 
The cannon sends its thunders to the sky ; 

The winged fires of slaughter round me fall ; 
Great God of battles I let Thy watchful eye 

Look o'er and guard me in this perilous hour, 

And if my cause be just, oh I arm me with Thy power. 



PATRIOTIC AND HEROIC ELOQUENCE. 95 

Oh ! lead me, Father, to a glorious end, 

To well-won freedom, or a martyr's death ; 
I bow submissive to Thy will, and send 

A soul-felt prayer to Thee in every breath : 
Do with me as beseems Thy wisdom, Lord, 
But let not guiltless blood defile my maiden sword ! 

God, I acknowledge Thee, and hear Thy tongue 

In the soft whisper of the failing leaves, 
As well as in the tumult of the throng 

Arrayed for fight — this human mass that heaves 
Like the vexed ocean. I adore Thy name, 
Oh, bless me, God of grace, and lead me unto fame. 

Oh ! bless me, Father I in Thy mighty hand 
I place what Thou hast lent — my mortal life ; 

I know it will depart at thy command, 

Yet will I praise Thee, God, in peace or strife ; 

Living or dying, God, my voice shall raise 

To Thee, Eternal Power, the W'ords of prayer and 
praise I 

I glorify Thee, God, I come not here 

To fight for false ambition, vainly brave ; 
I wield my patriot sword for things more dear, — 

Home and my fatherland ; the name of slave 
My sons shall not inherit. God of Heaven 1 
For Thee and Freedom's cause my sacred vow is given ! 

God, I am dedicate to Thee forever ; 

Death, which is legion here, may hem me round ; 
Within my heart the invader's steel may quiver, 

And spill my life-blood on the crimson ground : 
Still am I Thine, and unto Thee I call — 
Father I seek the foe — forgive me if I fall I 



9 b patriotic and hek0ic eloquence. 

Address to the United States House of Repre- 
sentatives — 1861. — Hon. G. A. Grow. 

Gentlemen of the House of Representatives of the 
United States of America : Words of thanks for the 
honor conferred by the vote just announced, would but 
feebly express the heart's gratitude.* While appreciating 
the distinguished mark of your confidence, I am not un- 
mindful of the trying duties incident to the position to 
which you have assigned me. Surrounded at all times 
by grave responsibility, it is doubly so in this hour of 
national disaster, when every consideration of gratitude 
to the past and obligation to the future gathers around 
the present. 

Fourscore years ago, fifty-six bold merchants, farm- 
ers, lawyers and mechanics, the representatives of a 
few feeble colonies scattered along the Atlantic sea- 
board, met in convention to found a new empire, based 
on the inalienable rights of man. Seven years of bloody 
conflict ensued, and the fourth of July, 1776, is canon- 
ized in the hearts of the great and good as the jubi- 
lee of oppressed nationalities, and in the calendar of 
heroic deeds it marks a new era in the history of the 
race. Three-quarters of a century have passed away, 
and the few feeble colonists, hemmed in by the ocean 
in front, the wilderness and the savage in the rear, have 
spanned a whole continent with a great empire of free 
states, rearing throughout its vast wilderness the tem- 
ples of science and of civilization on the ruins of savage 
life. Happiness, seldom if ever equalled, has surround- 
ed the domestic fireside, and prosperity unsurpassed 
has crowned the national energies ; the liberties of the 
people have been secure at home and abroad, while the 

* He had just been elected Speaker. 



PATRIOTIC AND HEROIC ELOQUENCE. 07 

national .standard floated, honored and respected, in every 
commercial mart of the world. On the return of this 
glorious anniversary, after a period but little exceeding 
the allotted lifetime of man, the people's representatives 
are convened in the council chambers of the republic, to 
deliberate on the means for preserving the government 
under whose benign influence these grand results have 
been achieved. A rebellion, the most causeless in the 
history of the race, has developed a conspiracy of long 
standing to destroy the constitution formed by the wis- 
dom of our fathers, and the Union cemented by their 
blood. This conspiracy, nurtured for long years in secret 
councils, first develops itself openly in acts of spoliation 
and plunder of public property, with the connivance, or 
under the protection of treason, enthroned in all the high 
places of the government, and at last in armed rebellion 
for the overthrow of the best government ever devised 
by man. Without an effort in the mode prescribed in 
the organic law for a redress of all grievances, the . mal- 
contents appeal to the arbitrament of the sword, insult 
the nation's honor, trample upon its flag, and inaugurate 
a revolution, which, if successful, would end in establish- 
ing petty jai-ring confederacies, or anarchy, upon the ruins 
of the republic, and the destruction of its liberties. 

The 19th of April, canonized in the first struggle for 
American nationality, has been reconsecrated in martyr 
blood. Warren has his counterpart in Ellsworth, and 
the heroic deeds and patriotic sacrifices of the struggle 
for the establishment of the republic are being reproduced 
upon the battle-field for its maintenance. Every race and 
tongue of men almost are represented in the grand legion 
of the Union, their standards proclaiming in a language 
more impressive than words, that here indeed is the home 
of the emigrant and the asylum of the exile, no matter 
where was his birth-place or in what clime his infancy 
was cradled. He devotes* his life to the defence of his 
5 



y<5 PATRIOTIC AND HEROIC ELOQUENCE. 

adopted land, the vindication of its honor, and the pro- 
tection of its flag, with the same zeal with which he 
would guard his hearth-stone and fireside. All parties, 
sects and conditions of men, not corrupted by the institu- 
tions of human bondage, forgetting bygone rancors or 
prejudices, blend in one phalanx for the integrity of the 
Union and the perpetuity of the republic. Long years 
of peace in the pursuits of sordid gain, instead of blunting 
the patriotic devotion of loyal citizens, seem but to have 
intensified its development, when the existence of the gov- 
ernment is assailed. The merchant, the banker and the 
tradesman, with an alacrity unparalleled, proffer their all 
at the altar of their country, while from the counter, the 
workshop and the plough, brave hearts and stout arms, 
leaving their tasks unfinished, rush to the tented field ; 
the air vibrates with martial strains, and the earth shakes 
with armed men. In view of this grand demonstration 
for self-preservation in the history of nationalities, de- 
sponding patriotism may be assured that the foundations 
of our national greatness still stand strong, and the senti- 
ment which beats to-day in every loyal heart, will for the 
future be realized. No flag alien to the sources of the 
Mississippi will ever float permanently over its mouth, till 
its waters are crimsoned with human gore, and not one 
foot of American soil can be wrenched from the jurisdic- 
tion of the constitution of the United States until it is 
baptized in fire and blood. 

" In God is our trust, 
And the star-spangled banner forever shall wave 
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave." 

Those who regard it as mere cloth bunting, fail to ap- 
preciate its symbolical power. Wherever civilization 
dwells, or the name of Washington is known, it bears on 
its folds the concentrated power of armies and navies, 
and surrounds the votaries with a defence more impreg- 
nable than a battlement of wall or tower. Wherever on 



PATRIOTIC AND HEROIC ELOQUENCE. \)\) 

the earth's surface an American citizen may wander, 
called by pleasure, business, or caprice, it is a shield 
securing him against wrong and outrage, save on the 
soil of the land of his birth. As the guardians of the 
rights and liberties of the people, your paramount duty 
is to make it honored at home as it is respected abroad. 
A government that cannot command the loyalty of its 
own citizens is unworthy the respect of the world, and a 
government that will not protect its own loyal citizens 
deserves the contempt of the world. He who would 
tear down this grandest temple of constitutional liberty, 
thus blasting forever the hopes of crushed humanity, lie- 
cause its freemen, in the mode prescribed by the consti- 
tution, select a chief-magistrate not acceptable to him, is 
a parricide to his race, and should be regarded as a com- 
mon enemy of mankind. The Union once destroyed, is 
a shattered vase that no human power can reconstruct in 
its original symmetry. Coarse stones, when they are 
broken, may be cemented again — precious ones, never. 
If the republic is to be dismembered, and the sun of its 
liberty must go out in endless night, let it set amid the 
roar of cannon and the din of battle, when there is no 
longer an arm to strike or heart to bleed in its cause, so 
that coming generations may not reproach the present 
with being too imbecile to preserve the priceless legacy 
bequeathed by our fathers, so as to transmit it unim- 
paired to future times. Again, gentlemen, thanking you 
for your confidence and kindness, and invoking guidance 
from that Divine Power that led our fathers through the 
Red Sea of the revolution, I enter upon the discharge of 
the duties to which you have assigned me, relying upon 
your forbearance and co-operation, and trusting that your 
labors will contribute not a little to the greatness and 
glory of the republic. 



100 PATRIOTIC AND HEROIC ELOQUENCE. 



The Myrtle and Steel. — Charles Fenno Hoffman. 

One bumper yet, gallants, at parting, 

One toast ere we arm for the fight ; 
Fill round, each to her he loves dearest — 

'Tis the last he may pledge her to-night. 
Think of those who of old at the banquet 

©id their weapons in garlands conceal, 
The patriot-heroes who hallowed 

The entwining of myrtle and steel ! 

Then hey for the myrtle and steel ! 

Then ho for the myrtle and steel 1 
Let every true blade who e'er loved a maid, 

Fill round to the myrtle and steel 1 

Now mount, for our bugle is ringing 

To marshal the host for the fray, 
"Where proudly our banner is flinging 

Its folds o'er the battle array ; 
Yet, gallants — one moment — remember, 

When your sabres the death-blow would deal, 
That mercy wears her shape who's cherished 

By lads of the myrtle and steel. 

Then hey for the myrtle and steel 1 

Then ho for the myrtle and steel ! 
Let every true blade who e'er loved a maid, 

Fill round to the myrtle and steel 1 



The Fugitive Lieutenant. — New York Ledger. 

It was while the American army was freezing and 
starving at Valley Forge, and the British army was riot- 
ing and luxuriating in Philadelphia, that a lame, dirty, 
beggarly-looking fellow, walking with a crutch, approach- 
ed the northern outpost of the royal forces, and, with a 
simple, idiotic laugh and leer, announced his intention of 
entering the city and taking the British general prisoner. 



PATRIOTIC AND HEROIC ELOQUENCE. 101 

" Indeed ? — then I shall be under the necessity of ar- 
resting you !" said a young subaltern, winking at some of 
his companions, and assuming a serious air. 

"He! he! he!" laughed the idiot; "just you try it, 
that's all." 

" Why, my good fellow, what would you do ?" 

" Do ?" exclaimed the other, drawing himself up with 
an air of defiance ; " why, I'd tell the great General 
"Washington." 

" Then I am afraid to venture on your arrest. So pass 
on — you will probably find General Howe prepared to 
receive you." 

The idiot suddenly looked troubled, glancing about 
him warily and suspiciously, as if he feared he might 
meet the general he was so boldly going to capture, but 
finally hobbled off toward the city. With some such silly 
dialogue he got past the different sentries, who seemed 
to give him no thought beyond the amusement of the 
time. By night he was fairly within the town, and kept 
on his way, sometimes humming snatches of old songs, 
and in general not much noticed by any. Through one 
street after another he continued to hobble forward, till 
he came to one of no great length, containing a block of 
three-story, respectable-looking houses, which might be 
occupied by persons in middling circumstances. This 
street was not lighted, and appeared deserted, so that 
when he stopped before one of the dwellings he was not 
perceived. He knocked at the door, and a woman's head 
appeared at the second-story window. 

" Won't you give me something to eat, ma'm ? I'm 
nearly starved !" said the idiot. 

"Yes, poor fellow!" replied the woman, in a kindly 
tone ; "in a minute I will hand you something." 

Soon after a lower shutter was pushed a little back, 
and a hand, containing some bread and meat, was thrust 
out. 



102 PATRIOTIC AND HEROIC ELOQUENCE. 

"Mother !" said a low voice. 

" Gracious heaven !" exclaimed the female within, in 
an agitated tone. 

" Hush !" returned the heggar, in a guarded whisper. 

A moment after the door was thrown open. 

" Yes, ma'm — thank you — I don't care if I do," said 
the beggar, as if in reply to an invitation to come in, at 
the same time crossing the threshold, with an appearance 
of deep humility. 

The moment the door closed behind him, the man drop, 
ped his crutch and threw his arms around the other, fair- 
ly sobbing. 

" Mother ! dear, dear mother !" 

" William !" exclaimed the other, pressing the ragged 
mendicant to her heart ; " oh, my dear, dear William ! 
what is the meaning of this ? and how is it I. find you 
here in this sad plight ?" 

"I have passed the British lines in this disguise, play- 
ing the fool to the sentries. But tell me how you are, 
dear mother, and how you fare in these troublous times?" 

" Indifferently well, my son. The British are our mas- 
ters here, but so far I have little to complain of in the 
way of personal treatment. Provisions are scarce and 
high, and only by the strictest economy shall I be able to 
live through, if they continue to retain possession of the 
city any considerable length of time. Your sister Mary 
is at your uncle's in Delaware, and will deeply regret that 
she has missed this opportunity of seeing you." 

"And are you alone, mother ?" 

"No, two English gentleman are boarding with me." 

" Do they belong to the army ?" inquired the young 
man, quickly and uneasily; "and are they now in the 
house ?" 

" ISTo ; they appear to be private gentlemen of some 
means, and neither is within at present. But you look 
troubled — have you any thing to fear, my son ?" 



PATRIOTIC AND HEROIC ELOQUENCE. 103 

" If detected, I may be hung as a spy." 

" Good heavens !" exclaimed the mother, in alarm ; 
"you terrify me! Are you here without permission? 
without a pass?" 

" Yes — did I not say I played the fool to the sentries, 
and so got past them ?" 

" But I thought that was for your own amusement. 
Oh, William, if you should he discovered ! Why did 
you venture in this desperate manner ?" 

" I could not get a pass, and I was so anxious to see 
you and Mary that I resolved to risk all." 

" Quick, then, come up stairs, and let us fix upon a 
hiding-place at once, before any thing happens ! Oh, 
William, I am so alarmed !" 

Both hastened up stairs to the third story, and, after 
considering several places, decided that the loft close un- 
der the roof might be the best for concealment, as the 
trap-door leading to it could be fastened underneath, 
which would tend to blind a search; while the young 
man, if pressed, could escape to the roof, and, by means 
of a long rope, fastened to the chimney, could lower him- 
self into either the yard or the street. This would not 
insure his esca]ie, but it was the best plan the two could 
think of, and served to render both less fearful of detec- 
tion and the serious consequences. Having provided the 
rope, the mother hastened to bring up a large quantity 
of food, which her son began to devour with a ravenous- 
ness that showed he had told no untruth, when, in the 
character of a beggar, he had declared himself in a state 
bordering on starvation. 

While he was eating, his mother plied him with ques- 
tions concerning the army at Valley Forge, in which he 
held a lieutenant's commission, and which he had left on 
a furlough ; and the answers of the young soldier depict- 
ed a state of destitution and suffering that caused his 
hearer to weep for very sympathy. Three thousand sol- 



104 PATEIOTIC AND HEKOIC ELOQUENCE. 

diers had been down on the sick list at one time, and, 
without the common necessaries of life, had perished by 
hundreds ; while of those capable of doing duty, scarce- 
ly one had a blanket to cover him at night, or food enough 
to keep soul and body together. Pale, emaciated, ragged 
and dirty, many with bare feet upon the frozen earth, 
they walked shivering through the camp by day, and 
crowded themselves together at night, to get what little 
warmth they could from each other's bodies, the most 
forlorn and wretched set of beings that ever a nation 
called to arms. 

" God help us all !" ejaculated the mother, in a deject- 
ed tone. "I suppose, after all our hardships, we shall be 
compelled to succumb to our tyrannical foes." 

" Never," cried the young officer, " while there are 
a thousand men left in our country to make a last despe- 
rate stand. We can only be conquered by annihilation ; 
and if it is God's will that a tyrant shall rule over this 
broad continent, not a single true heart will live to feel 
the oppression and degradation. Ere that time, dear 
mother, I for one shall be beyond the reach of earthly 
monarch." 

" God bless you, William !" cried the mother, enthusi- 
astically grasping his hand ; "your father's spirit speaks 
in you. He died on the battle-field with those sentiments 
in his heart ; and I freely give you — my only son and 
hope — to the glorious cause which his blood and that of 
thousands of others has hallowed." 

For several days the intrepid young officer remained 
concealed beneath his mother's roof, his presence sup- 
posed to be known only to themselves. But one evening, 
near the end of his furlough, when he was beginning to 
think about preparing for his secret departure, an officer 
with six men appeared at the door, and said he had orders 
to arrest one William Ruggles, supposed to be somewhere 
in the dwelling. 



PATRIOTIC AND HEROIC ELOQUENCE. 105 

" Why, that is my son !" said the widow, in great trep- 
idation. 

" So much the more likely that he should be here, then," 
was the unfeeling reply. 

" And for what would you arrest him? and what will 
be clone with him if found?" 

" We shall take him for a spy, and, if found guilty, 
he will be hung of course, as every cursed rebel should 
be. Here, Badger and Wilcofc, guard the back-door ; you, 
Bent and Walters, begin the search ; and you, Jones and 
Johnson, remain where you are. Sharp now, all of you ! 
Let the fellow be taken alive if possible — but, alive or 
dead, let him be taken. Now, good woman, if he is in 
the house, of which we are very strongly assured, let him 
appear, and save yourself much trouble, otherwise the 
consequences be on your own head." 

" If you think my son is in the house, search to your 
heart's content!" returned the mother, externally calm, 
internally suffering. 

And forthwith the search began. 

Meantime the young lieutenant, who had heard enough 
to comprehend his danger, had set about effecting his es- 
cape, but not altogether in the manner first intended. He 
went out on the roof, it is true, and tied the long rope to 
the chimney, casting one end down toward the street, but 
this only for a blind. He had seen that the bricks of the 
dividing wall between the house occupied by his mother 
and one of the two adjoining buildings, had been loosely 
put up under the ridge-pole, and his present design was to 
remove a few of these, crowd through into the loft of the 
other house, and then replace them. This purpose he ef- 
fected before the soldiers searching for him came up near 
enough to hear the little noise he was compelled to make. 
The open trap-door of the roof, and the rope around the 
chimney, served to mislead them, as he had hoped ; and 
it was Avith a feeling; of intense satisfaction that he heard 



106 PATRIOTIC AND HEROIC ELOQUENCE. 

them announce the manner of his escape. Immediately 
after, the whole party left in haste, first threatening Mrs. 
Ruggles with subsequent vengeance, for harboring, con- 
cealing, and conniving at the escape of a rebel spy, even 
though the man was her son. 

When fully satisfied that all the soldiers had gone, 
young Ruggles attempted to return into his mother's 
dwelling by the way he had left, but in again displacing 
the bricks for this purpose, one of them slipped and went 
down through an open trap-door upon the floor below, 
making a loud noise. Immediately after a light flashed 
up through the opening, and a timid female voice demand- 
ed who was there. 

Here was a dilemma. Should the young soldier reply, 
he would be exposed ; and should he keep silence, a search 
would probably be made, which might prove even more 
serious in its consequences. What was to be done ? A 
sudden inspiration seized him. It was a woman's voice, 
and women are seldom steeled to pity. He would make 
himself known, appeal to her sympathies, and throw him- 
self upon her mercy. 

" Lady," he began, in a gentle tone, calculated to reas- 
sure his fair hearer, " be not alarmed. I am a friend in 
distress, the son of your next-door neighbor. I am hunt- 
ed as a spy by British soldiers, and, if found, my life will 
be forfeited. If you cannot pity me, for God's sake pity 
my poor mother, and assist me for her sake !" 

He presented himself at the opening to the loft, and 
boldly descended the steps leading down from it, directly 
before the lady, a sweet, beautiful girl of eighteen, who 
stood with a light in her hand, and seemed dumb and mo- 
tionless with a commingling of fear, surprise and curiosi- 
ty. The young man continued to speak as he descended, 
and hurriedly went on to narrate all that had occurred, 
concluding with the search of the soldiers, and his escape 
into the loft above. 



PATRIOTIC AND HEROIC ELOQUENCE. 107 

"Thank God, it is in my power to aid yon, sir!" -were 
the first words of the girl, spoken with a look and feeling 
of sympathy that made the heart of the soldier bound 
with strange emotions. 

She then went on to tell him that a cousin from New 
Jersey, about his size and build, and looking not unlike 
him, was then on a visit to the family, having a pass from 
General Howe. This pass she had that evening been 
looking at, and by accident it was now in her possession, 
the cousin having gone out with the rest of the family., 
and forgotten it. 

"Take it and fly, and may God preserve you!" she 
said. " I can arrange it with my kinsman," she contin- 
ued ; " I can have lost it, and he can easily procure an- 
other." 

She hurried him down stairs, throwing a cloak over 
his shoulders on the way, which she insisted upon his 
wearing, saying it had belonged to a deceased brother, 
and he could return it at any future time. She then has- 
tened to get the pass, which she placed in his hand, and 
urged him to go at once. 

" If I could but see my mother for a moment !" he said. 

" No, no — leave all to me — I will explain all to her — 
go while you can, before it is too late." 

"God in heaven bless you, sweet lady!" he said, im- 
pulsively seizing her hand and touching it with his lips. 
" I will never forget you." 

The next minute he was gone. He escaped. And, 
true to his declaration, he never did forget the sweet 
girl who befriended him in his hour of peril. Years 
after, the honored wife of General Ruggles was many a 
time heard to tell of her first romantic meeting with him 
she loved, then a hunted fugitive from the Continental 
army. 



108 PATRIOTIC AND HEROIC ELOQUENCE. 



Decisive Integrity. — Hon. William Wirt. 

The man who is so conscious of the rectitude of his in- 
tentions, as to be willing to open his bosom to the inspec- 
tion of the world, is in possession of one of the strongest 
pillars of a decided character. The course of such a man 
will be firm and steady, because he has nothing to fear 
from the world, and is sure of the approbation and sup- 
port of heaven, while he who is conscious of secret and 
dark designs which, if known, would blast him, is per- 
petually shrinking and dodging from public observation, 
and is afraid of all around, and much more of all above 
him. 

Such a man may indeed pursue his iniquitous plans 
steadily; he may waste himself to a skeleton in the guilty 
pursuit; but it is impossible that he can pursue them with 
the same health-inspiring confidence and exulting alacrity, 
with him who feels, at every step, that he is in the pur- 
suit of honest ends by honest means. The clear, un- 
clouded brow, the open countenance, the brilliant eye 
which can look an honest man steadfastly yet courteous- 
ly in the face, the healthfully beating heart, and the firm 
elastic step, belong to him whose bosom is free from 
guile, and who knows that all his motives and purposes 
are pure and right. Why should such a man falter in 
his course ? He may be slandered ; he may be deserted 
by the world ; but he has that within which will keep 
him erect, and enable him to move onward in his course 
with his eyes fixed on heaven, which he knows will not 
desert him. 

Let your first step, then, in that discipline which is to 
give you decision of character, be the heroic determina- 
tion to be honest men, and to preserve this character 
through every vicissitude of fortune, and in every rela- 
tion which connects you with society. I do not use this 



PATRIOTIC AND HEROIC ELOQUENCE. 109 

phrase, "honest men," in the narrow sense, merely, of 
meeting your pecuniary engagements, and paying your 
debts ; for this the common pride of gentlemen will con- 
strain you to do. I use it in its larger sense of discharg- 
ing all your duties, both public and private, both open 
and secret, with the most scrupulous, heaven-attesting 
integrity ; in that sense, further, which drives from the 
bosom all little, dark, crooked, sordid, debasing consider- 
ations of self, and substitutes in their place a bolder, 
loftier and nobler spirit ; one that will dispose you to 
consider yourselves as born, not so much for yourselves, 
as for your country and your fellow-creatures, and which 
will lead you to act on every occasion sincerely, justly, 
generously, magnanimously. 

There is a morality on a larger scale, perfectly consist- 
ent with a just attention to your own affairs, which it 
would be the height of folly to neglect : a generous ex- 
pansion, a proud elevation, and conscious greatness of 
character, which is the best preparation for a decided 
course, in every situation into which you can be thrown ; 
and it is to this high and noble tone of character that I 
would have you to aspire. I would not have you to re- 
semble those weak and meagre streamlets, which lose 
their direction at every petty impediment that presents 
itself, and stop, and turn back, and creep around, and 
search out every little channel through which they may 
wind their feeble and sickly course. Nor yet would I 
have you to resemble the headlong torrent that carries 
havoc in its mad career. But I would have you like 
the ocean, that noblest emblem of majestic decision, 
which, in the calmest hour, still heaves its resistless 
might of waters to the shore, filling the heavens, day and 
night, with the echoes of its sublime declaration of inde- 
pendence, and tossing and sporting, on its bed, with an 
imperial consciousness of strength that laughs at opposi- 
tion. It is this depth, and weight, and power, and purity 



110 PATRIOTIC AND HEROIC ELOQUENCE. 

of character, that I would have you to resemble ; and I 
would have you. like the waters of the ocean, to become 
the purer by your own action. 



Etjlogium on the Captors of Major Andre. — Hon. 
H. J. Raymond. 

Nothing is easier — nothing, I may add, is more un- 
just — than to disparage the worth and excellence of use- 
ful acts, by throwing distrust upon the motives of the 
men by whom they have been performed. There is no 
name so lofty that it cannot be thus assailed — no charac- 
ter so clear that it may not thus be stained. But if mo- 
tives are to be judged by facts, by attendant circum- 
stances, and by character — and I know no other test so 
decisive and so just — I can recall none of the actors in 
our revolutionary history who may defy the utmost scru- 
tiny of such an inquisition, more fearlessly or more safely, 
than the captors of Major Andre. Their past lives, their 
labors, and their sufferings, attest their devotion to their 
country's cause. At the moment of their meeting Andre, 
they were engaged in the performance of a legalized and 
a useful service. Not a fact has ever been cited to dis- 
prove the averment that their search oi his person, and 
their conversation with him, were for the sole purpose 
of deciding his character, and thus upon the course it 
would be proper for them to take ; and they returned 
him to the American camp, in spite of the most tempting 
offers which the peril of his position could prompt ; in 
ignorance of the real importance of his rank and mission ; 
without any ground for expecting any great reward ; 
and, so far as an unprejudiced judgment can decide, from 
the sole motive of guarding the country and the cause 
they served from the unknown peril which his presence 
seemed to threaten. If the bare opinion, unsupported 



PATRIOTIC AND HEROIC ELOQUENCE. Ill 

by a single fact, of their chagrined and baffled captive — 
pronounced, with unmanly resentment, on his way to 
that scaffold which their detection of his crime had 
erected for him — is to outweigh all these considerations, 
and reverse the verdict of fifty years, then, indeed, is an 
honorable name among men one of the most precarious 
and unsubstantial of earthly possessions. 

But I am conscious of giving more notice to this mat- 
ter than it deserves. If I were in some distant land, a 
vindication of the captors of Andre might be needed : 
but here in Westchester ; amid the descendants of those 
who knew them well ; in presence of this large multi- 
tude assembled to do them honor; on the very spot 
made sacred by their heroic and undying act; and in 
shadow of the monument you have erected to perpetuate 
the remembrance of it through all coming time, I know 
it cannot be required : I only hope it may be excused. 

And now, friends and fellow- citizens, your work of 
patriotism and of duty has been performed. This monu- 
ment — simple, substantial, unpretending — fit emblem of 
the men it honors, stands complete. It commemorates 
no brilliant or renowned exploit ; but it signalizes an 
honest and a manly act, which turned the adverse tide 
of a nation's struggle for independence, and produced 
results of vast beneficence in that nation's history. Rich- 
ly have the men by whom it was performed, deserved 
this mark of your patriotic and grateful recollection. 
Their memory will be cherished, and the story of their 
virtue will be rehearsed, when generations to come shall 
vainly seek to trace their names on this crumbling stone ; 
for what is this great nation, with its large and benefi- 
cent liberty, its growing grandeur, its advancing power, 
its uncounted blessings, and its bright example, but a 
mighty monument to the patriots who won its freedom, 
and laid the deep foundations of its fame ? Loftier than 
the Pyramids, grander than the Pantheon, holier than 



112 PATRIOTIC AND HEROIC ELOQUENCE. 

that sacred temple where England garners up the im- 
mortal treasures of her heart, is the mausoleum where 
their ashes rest : for they repose in the soil redeemed by 
their blood; the heavens, that smiled on their toil, in 
benignity bend over their grave ; the freedom and the 
happiness of the millions they blessed, sound unceasingly 
their anthem of praise ; and, 

" So sepulchred, in such pomp they he, 
That kings for such a tomb might wish to die." 



The National Flag. — New York Ledger. 

Eighty-four years ago, on the fourteenth of the pres- 
ent month, it was resolved by Congress, "That the flag 
of the thirteen United States be thirteen stripes, alternate 
red and white, and that the Union be thirteen white 
stars on a blue field." Twenty-one new stars have since 
been added to the constellation of 1777, and the "blue 
field" is now spangled with thirty-four shining symbols 
of liberty and union. The progress of the republic during 
the period that has elapsed since the stars and stripes 
were adopted as the national ensign, has been little short 
of miraculous. Its population of scant three millions at 
the commencement of the war of independence, has in- 
creased to more than thirty millions, and although yet in 
its infancy, as we reckon the ages of nations, it ranks in 
political importance, in commercial power and influence, 
in material resources, and in all the elements of national 
glory, with the mightiest empires of the old world. 
Never was there such a bound from comparative insig- 
nificance to substantial greatness since time began. Our 
story is the very romance of history. 

The tree 
Whose drooping branches one by one take root 



PATRIOTIC AND HEROIC ELOQUENCE. 113 

Until a forest hides the parent stem, 
Symbols the rise of empires — yet for ours 
Affords no parallel. lis bursting seeds 
Were scattered broadcast by the hand of God ! 
Behold the increase ! — where, on every side, 
From the blue mountains to the bounding main. 
Nestling- in valleys, dotting fertile plains, 
And on the hill-sides shining, crowned with spires, 
Our cities rise ; while down a hundred streams 
Our inland fleets sweep laden to the sea 1 
Behold the lakes, where once the frail canoe 
Timidly coasted ! Lo, from port to port, 
Trading their smoky pennons through the sky, 
The mighty steamers surging I 

In each zone 
That belts the earth our star-lit banner shines, 
And every gale sends forth to every shore, 
Or home returns, our freighted argosies 1 

The flag under which we have attained to such a pitch 
of prosperity and glory, was first displayed in battle on 
the 7th of October, 1777, at the memorable battle of 
Saratoga, which resulted in the surrender, a few days af- 
terward, of more than six thousand British troops to the 
American arms. This was a glorious beginning, and the 
banner thus auspiciously launched upon its career, was 
borne on from victory to victory, until it floated over the 
heights of Yorktown, and the veterans of Cornwallis 
grounded their weapons under its triumphant folds. 
Thirty-four years later British valor again succumbed 
before it at the decisive battle of JSTew Orleans. Then 
Algiers and Tripoli and Tunis were compelled to do it 
homage, and still more recently, after a series of the 
most brilliant successes, uninterrupted by a single re- 
verse, it was planted, an emblem of conquest, in the 
capital of Mexico. Through three wars it has passed 
without a stain. For more than four-fifths of a century 
it has fluttered over the only free country on the face of 
the globe. It has been respected in every land and on 



114: PATRIOTIC AND HEBOIC ELOQUENCE. 

every sea. No government has ever outraged it with 
impunity. It has been borne further into the regions of 
eternal ice than any other flag in Christendom. The 
greatest statesmen and orators of modern times — aye, or 
of any times — have flourished in its shadow. Genius has 
wedded it to immortal song. It was the battle standard 
and the paU of Washington. It is the only legitimate 
emblem of true civil liberty that floats this day between 
earth and heaven. The despot-ridden peoples of Europe 
look up to it with eyes as full of trust and hope, as if the 
motto of the sacred banner of Constantine, "In hoc signo 
vinces," Tinder this sign shall ye conquer, was written 
in letters of light across its stripes and stars. It is the 
flag not merely of this Union, but of freedom — she has 
no other / To abandon or dishonor it would be base in- 
gratitude to heaven, and foul treason to mankind ! 
Long mat it wave ! 



Upward ! Onward ! — John II. Bryant. 

Upward, onward, are our watchwords ; 

Though the winds blow good or ill, 
Though the sky be fair or stormy, 

These shall be our watchwords still. 

Upward, onward, in the battle 
"Waged for freedom and the right, 

Never resting, never weary, 
Till a victory crowns the fight. 

Upward, onward, pressing forward, 
Till each bondman's chains shall fall, 

Till the flag that floats above us, 
Liberty proclaims to all. 

Waking every morn to duty — 
Ere its hours shall pass away, 



PATRIOTIC AND HEROIC ELOQUENCE. 115 

Let some act of love or mercy 
Crown the labors of the day. 

Lo ! a better day is coming, 

Brighter prospects ope before ; 
Spread your banner to the 

Upward, onward, evermore I 



Our Country. — Daniel Webster. 

This lovely land, this glorious libei-ty, these benign in- 
stitutions, the dear purchase of our fathers, are ours ; 
ours to enjoy, ours to preserve, ours to transmit. Gen- 
erations past, and generations to come, hold us responsi- 
ble for this sacred trust. Our fathers, from behind, ad- 
monish us with their anxious paternal voices ; posterity 
calls out to us from the bosom of the future ; the world 
turns hither its solicitous eyes ; — all, all conjure us to act 
wisely and faithfully in the relation which we sustain. 
We can never, indeed, pay the debt which is upon us ; 
but by virtue, by morality, by religion, by the cultivation 
of every good principle and every good habit, we may 
hope to enjoy the blessing through our day, and to leave 
it unimpaired to our children. 

Let us feel deeply how much, of what we are and of 
what we possess, we owe to this liberty, and these insti- 
tutions of government. Nature has, indeed, given us a 
soil which yields bounteously to the hands of industry ; 
the mighty and fruitful ocean is before us, and the skies 
over our heads shed health and vigor. But what are 
lands, and seas, and skies, to civilized man, without so- 
ciety, without knowledge, without morals, without re- 
ligious culture? and how can these be enjoyed, in all 
their extent, and all their excellence, but under the pro- 
tection of wise institutions and a free p-overnment ? 



116 PATRIOTIC AND HEROIC ELOQUENCE. 

There is not one of us, there is not one of us here pres- 
ent, who does not at this moment, and at every moment, 
experience in his own condition, and in the condition of 
those most near and dear to him, the influence and the 
benefits of this liberty and these institutions. Let us, 
then, acknowledge the blessing ; let us feel it deeply and 
powerfully ; let us cherish a strong affection for it, and 
resolve to maintain and perpetuate it. The blood of our 
fathers — let it not have been shed in vain; the great 
hope of posterity — let it not be blasted. 

The striking attitude, too, in which we stand to the 
world around us, cannot be altogether omitted here. 
Neither individuals nor nations can perform their part 
well, until they understand and feel its importance, and 
comprehend and justly appreciate all the duties belong- 
ing to it. It is not to inflate national vanity, nor to swell 
a light and empty feeling of self-importance ; but it is that 
we may judge justly of our situation, and of our own 
duties, that I earnestly urge this consideration of our po- 
sition and our character among the nations of the earth. 

It cannot be denied, but by those who would dispute 
against the sun, that with America, and in America, a 
new era commences in human affairs. This era is dis- 
tinguished by free representative governments, by entire 
religious liberty, by improved systems of national inter- 
course, by a newly-awakened and an unconquerable spirit 
of free inquiry, and by a diffusion of knowledge through 
the community, such as has been before altogether un- 
known and unheard of. America, America, our country, 
our own dear and native land, is inseparably connected, 
fast bound up, in fortune and by fate, with these great 
interests. If they fall, we fall with them ; if they stand, 
it will be because we have upholden them. 



PATRIOTIC AND HEROIC ELOQUENCE. 117 



New England and the Union — 1846. — Hon. Han- 
nibal Hamlin. 

Too often within these walls,* in the discussion of 
various measures, have I heard taunts and reproaches, 
either directly or by implication, cast upon various sec- 
tions of this Union; and when they were directed to that 
section where it is my pride and my pleasure to reside, 
I have felt them thrill along my nerves, like an electric 
shock, and the impulses of my heart have been upon my 
lips to hurl them back again. But time and reflection 
have chastened these feelings ; and I pass them by in 
sorrow that they should come from the lips of any indi- 
vidual on this floor; and while it is my pride to be an 
inhabitant of that section whose motives were so ques- 
tioned here, I have a word to say in behalf of that peo- 
ple. I have no objections to interpose here in defence 
of what may have been the errors or wickedness of her 
politicians, but in behalf of her citizens I have a word to 
say. I believe them to be as patriotic as any other class 
of citizens to be found in our Union. They have exhib- 
ited their patriotism and their valor on many a well- 
fought field. Their bones have bleached on many a 
northern hill, and the barren sands of the south have 
drunk in their best blood. Sir, I point with pride to the 
north, and invite you there to witness a system which 
has grown up with us, and which is our ornament. I 
point you to bur system of free labor. I point you to 
our common schools — to our churches pointing their 
spires toward heaven — and I glory in them. They are 
the monuments that belong to a free people, who have 
the true spirit of citizens of a free government. These 
things are the glory of the north. They are the blood- 

* Of the United States House of Representatives. 



118 PATRIOTIC AND HEROIC ELOQUENCE. 

less moral monuments which mark the progress of a free 
people. But I stop not here : I ask you to go with me 
throughout this whole broad nation ; and I point you to 
her — I point you to the whole Union — as a monument of 
political grandeur towering toward the heavens, upon 
which the friend of freedom, wherever upon our globe he 
may be, may gaze ; around whose summit the sunlight 
of glory forever shines, and at whose base a free people 
reposes, and I trust, will forever repose. So much for 
New England, my home; so much for the Union, my 
country I 



The Charter Oak. — By George D. Preritice. 

(Written before the old monarch's fall.) 

Tree of the olden time ! A thousand storms 
Have hurried through thy branches — centuries 
Have set their signets on thy trunk, and gone 
In silence o'er thee like the moonlight mists, 
That move at evening o'er the battlements 
Of the eternal mountains ! and yet thou 
Shakest thy naked banner in the heavens 
As proudly still as when great Freedom first 
Crowned thee with deathless glory ! 

Monument 
Of nations perished ! since thy form first sprang 
From its green throne of forest, many a deep 
And burning tide of human tears has flowed 
Down to the ocean of the past, until 
Its every wave is bitterness — but thou 
Art reckless still ! — no heart has ever throbbed 
Beneath thy silent breast, and, though thy sighs 
Have mingled with the night-storm, they were not 
The requiem of the nations that have gone 
Down to the dust, like thy own withered leaves 
Swept by the autumn tempest I 



PATRIOTIC AND HEROIC ELOQUENCE. 119 

Aye — bloom on, 
Tree of the cloud and sun ! Gird on thy strength I 
Yet there will come a time when thou shalt sleep 
Upon thy own hill-tomb ! The marshalled storms 
Shall seek but find thee not — and the proud clime, 
That long has been the consecrated home 
Of Liberty and thee, shall lie as erst 
In silent desolation ! Not a sound 
Shall rise from all its confines save the moan 
Of passing winds, the cloud's deep tone of fear, 
The noise of stormy waters, and the wild 
And fearful murmuring of the earthquake's voice. 



Character of the Disunionists — 1861. — Hon. Jo- 
Holt. 



Could one an entire stranger to our history, now look 
down upon the South, and see there a hundred or a hun- 
dred and fifty thousand men marching in hostile array, 
threatening the capture of the capital and the dismem- 
berment of the territory of the republic ; and could he 
look again and see that this army is marshalled and di- 
rected by officers recently occupying distinguished places 
in the civil and military service of the country ; and fur- 
ther, that the states from which this army has been drawn 
appear to be one vast seething cauldron of ferocious pas- 
sion, he would very naturally conclude that the govern- 
ment of the United States had committed some great 
crime against its people, and that this uprising was in 
resistance to wrong and outrages which had been borne 
until endurance was no longer possible. And yet no 
conclusion could be further from the truth than this. 
The government of the United States has been faithful 
to all its constitutional obligations. For eighty years it 
has maintained the national honor at home and abroad, 
and by its prowess, its wisdom, and its justice, has given 



120 PATRIOTIC AND HEROIC ELOQUENCE. 

to the title of an American citizen an elevation among 
the nations of the earth which the citizens of no republic 
have enjoyed since Rome was mistress of the world. Un- 
der its administration the national domain has stretched 
away to the Pacific, and that constellation which an- 
nounced our birth as a people, has expanded from thir- 
teen to thirty-four stars, all, until recently, moving undis- 
turbed and undimmed in their orbs of light and grandeur. 
The rights of no states have been invaded ; no man's 
property has been despoiled, no man's liberty abridged, 
no man's life oppressively jeopardized by the action of 
this government. Under its benign influences the rills 
of public and private prosperity have swelled into rivu- 
lets, and from rivulets into rivers ever brimming in their 
fulness, and everywhere, and at all periods of its history, 
its ministrations have fallen as gently on the people of 
the United States as do the dews of a summer's night 
on the flowers and grass of the gardens and fields. 

"Whence, then, this revolutionary outbreak ? Whence 
the secret spring of this gigantic conspiracy, which, like 
some huge boa, had completely coiled itself around the 
limbs and body of the republic, before a single hand was 
lifted to resist it ? Strange, and indeed startling, as the 
announcement must appear when it falls on the ears 
of the next generation, the national tragedy, in whose 
shadow we stand to-night, has come upon us because, 
in November last, John C. Breckinridge was not elected 
president of the United States, and Abraham Lincoln 
was. This is the whole story. And I would pray now 
to know on what was John C. Breckinridge fed that he 
has grown so great, that a republic founded by Wash- 
ington, and cemented by the best blood that has ever 
coursed in human veins, is to be overthrown, because, 
forsooth, he cannot be its president ? Had he been cho- 
sen, we well know that we should not have heard of this 
rebellion, for the lever with which it is being moved 



PATRIOTIC AND HEROIC ELOQUENCE. 121 

would have been wanting to the hands of the conspira- 
tors. Even after his defeat, could it have been guaran- 
teed, beyond all peradventure, that Jeft'. Davis, or some 
other kindled spirit, would be the successor of Mr. Lin- 
coln, I presume we hazard nothing in assuming that this 
atrocious movement against the government woidd not 
have been set on foot. So much for the principle involved 
in it. This great crime, then, with which we are grap- 
pling, sprang from that " sin by which the angels fell" — 
an unmastered and profligate ambition — an ambition that 
" would rather reign in hell than serve in heaven" — that 
would rather rule supremely over a shattered fragment of 
the republic than run the chances of sharing with others 
the honors of the whole. 

The conspirators of the South read in the election of 
Mr. Lincoln a declaration that the democratic party had 
been prostrated, if not finally destroyed, by the selfish 
intrigues and corruptions of its leaders ; they read, too, 
that the vicious, emaciated, and spavined hobby of the 
slavery agitation, on which they had so often rode into 
power, could no longer carry them beyond a given geo- 
graphical line of our territory, and that in truth this fac- 
tious and treasonable agitation, on which so many of 
them had grown great by debauching and denationalizing 
the mind of a people naturally generous and patriotic, 
had run its course, and hence, that from the national dis- 
gust for this demagogueing, and from the inexorable law 
of population, the time had come when all those who had 
no other political capital than this, would have to prepare 
for retirement to private life, so far at least as the high- 
est offices of the country were concerned. Under the 
influence of these grim discouragements they resolved to 
consummate at once — what our political history shows 
to have been a long-cherished purpose — the dismem- 
berment of the government. They said to themselves : 
" Since we can no longer monopolize the great office.-, of 
6 



122 PATRIOTIC AND ITEEOIC ELOQUENCE. 

the republic as we have been accustomed to do, we will 
destroy it aud build upon its ruins an empire that shall be 
all our own, and whose spoils neither the North nor the 
East nor the West shall share with us." Deplorable and 
humiliating as this certainly is, it is but a rehearsal of the 
sad, sad story of the past. We had, indeed, supposed 
that under our Christian civilization we had reached a 
point in human progress, when a republic could exist 
without having its life sought by its own offspring ; but 
the Catilines of the South have proved that we were 
mistaken. Let no man imagine that because this rebel- 
lion has been made by men renowned in our civil and 
military history, that it is, therefore, the less guilty or 
the less courageously to be resisted. It is precisely this 
class of men who have subverted the best governments 
that have ever existed. The purest spirits that have 
lived in the tide of times, the noblest institutions that 
have arisen to bless our race, have found among those 
in whom they had most confided, and whom they had 
most honored, men wicked enough, either secretly to be- 
tray them unto death, or openly to seek their overthrow 
by lawless violence. The republic of England had its 
Monk ; the republic of France had its Bonaparte ; the 
republic of Rome had its Caesar and its Catiline, and the 
Saviour of the world had his Judas Iscariot. It can- 
not be necessary that I should declare to you, for you 
know them well, who they are whose parricidal swords 
are now unsheathed against the republic of the United 
States. Their names are inscribed upon a scroll of infa- 
my that can never perish. The most distinguished of 
them were educated by the charity of the government 
on which they are now making war. For long years 
they were fed from its table, and clothed from its ward- 
robe, and had their brows garlanded by its honors. They 
are the ungrateful sons of a fond mother, who dandled 
them upon her knee, who lavished upon them the gush- 



PATRIOTIC AND HEROIC ELOQUENCE. 123 

ing love of her noble and devoted nature, and who nur- 
tured them from the very bosom of her life ; and now, 
in the frenzied excesses of a licentious and baffled ambi- 
tion, they are stabbing at that bosom with the ferocity 
with which the tiger springs upon his prey. The presi- 
dent of the United States is heroically and patriotically 
struggling to baffle the machinations of these most wick- 
ed men. I have unbounded gratification in knowing that 
he has the courage to look traitors in the face, and that, 
in discharging the duties of his great office, he takes no 
counsel of his fears. He is entitled to the zealous sup- 
port of the whole country, and, may I not add without 
offence, that he will receive the support of all who justly 
appreciate the boundless blessings of our free institu- 
tions ? 



Prophecy of Freedom. — George D. Prentice* 

"Weep not that Time 
Is passing on — it will ere long reveal 
A brighter era to the nations. Hark 1 
Along the vales and mountains of the earth 
There is a deep, portentous murmuring, 
Like the swift rush of subterranean streams, 
Or like the mingled sounds of earth and air, 
When the fierce tempest, with sonorous wing, 
Heaves his deep folds upon the rushing winds, 
And hurries onward with his night of clouds 

* 
* George T>. Prentice, who at present wields such an unbounded influence in 
Kentucky, is sixty years old, but has lost none of the five of youth. An attack 
of paralysis several years ago nearly deprived him of the use of his right hand, 
and he has since been compelled to employ an amanuensis. His face is fringed 
with dark hair, which begins to show the silver of age; but his eyes gleam 
out under their dark brows, while his conversation scintillates with that ready 
wit which has made him the most famous parngraphist in ihe world. His man- 
ner is exceedingly quiet and modest. He sits at his table more than twelve 
hours a day, and often writes two or three columns for a single morning issue of 
Hie Louisville Journal. His powerful prn has rendered nugatory traitorous at- 
tempts at correspondence, and, more than any other man, he is feared and hated 
by the secessionists. 



124 PATRIOTIC AND HEROIC ELOQUENCE. 

Against the eternal mountains. 'Tis the voice 

Of infant Freedom, and her stirring call 

Is heard and answered in a thousand tones 

From every hill-top of her western home — 

And lo ! it breaks across old Ocean's flood — 

And "Freedom! Freedom!" is the answering shout 

Of nations starting from the spell of years. 

The day-spring ! — see — 'tis brightening in the heavens ! 

The watchmen of the night have caught the sign — 

From tower to tower the signal-fires flash free — 

And the deep watchword, like the rush of seas 

That heralds the volcano's bursting flame, 

Is sounding o'er the earth. Bright years of hope 

Are on the wing ! Yon glorious bow 

Of Freedom bended by the hand of God, 

Is spanning Time's dark surges. Its high arch, 

A type of Love and Mercy on the cloud, 

Tells that the many storms of human life 

"Will pass in silence, and the sinking waves, 

Gathering the forms of glory and of peace, 

Reflect the undimmed brightness of the heavens I 



Kentucky and the Disunionists — 1861. — Hon. Jo- 
seph Holt. 

Before closing, I desire to say a few words on the 
relations of Kentucky to the pending rebellion ; and as 
we are all Kentuckians here together to-night, and as 
thife is purely a family matter, which concerns the honor 
of us all, I hope we may be permitted to speak to each 
other upon it with entire freedom. I shall not detain 
you with observations on the hostile and defiant position 
assumed by the governor of your state. In his reply to 
the requisition made upon him for volunteers under the 
proclamation of the president, he has, in my judgment, 
written and finished his own history, his epitaph includ- 
ed, and it is probable that in future the world will little 



PATRIOTIC AND HEROIC ELOQUENCE. 125 

concern itself as to what his excellency may propose to 
do, or as to what he may propose not to do. That re- 
sponse has made for Kentucky a record that has already 
brought a burning blush to the cheek of many of her sons, 
and is destined to bring it to the cheek of many more in 
the years which are to come. It is a shame, indeed a 
crying shame, that a state with so illustrious a past should 
have written for her, by her own chief-magistrate, a page 
of history so utterly humiliating as this. But your legis- 
lature have determined that during the present unhappy 
war the attitude of the state shall be that of strict neu- 
trality, and it is upon this determination that I wish re- 
spectfully but frankly to comment. As the motives which 
governed the legislature were doubtless patriotic and 
conservative, the conclusion arrived at cannot be con- 
demned as dishonorable ; still, in view of the manifest 
duty of the state and of possible results, I cannot but re- 
gard it as mistaken and false, and one which may have 
fatal consequences. Strictly and legally speaking, Ken- 
tucky must go out of the Union before she can be neu- 
tral. Within it she is necessarily either faithful to the 
government of the United States, or she is disloyal to it. 
If this crutch of neutrality, upon which her well-mean- 
ing but ill-judging politicians are halting, can find any 
middle ground on which to rest, it has escaped my re- 
searches, though I have diligently sought it. Neutrality, 
in the sense of those who now use the term, however 
patriotically designed, is, in effect, but a snake in the 
grass of rebellion, and those who handle it will sooner 
or later feel its fangs. Said one who spake as never man 
spake, " He who is not with us is against us ;" and of 
none of the conflicts which have arisen between men or 
between nations, could this be more truthfully said than 
of that in which we are now involved. Neutrality neces- 
sarily implies indifference. Is Kentucky indifferent to the 
issue of this contest? Has she, indeed, nothing at stake ? 



126 PATRIOTIC A1n t D HEROIC ELOQUENCE. 

Has she bo compact with her sister states to keep, no 
plighted faith to uphold, no renown to sustain, no glory 
to win ? Has she no horror of that crime of crimes now 
being committed against us by that stupendous rebellion 
which has arisen like a tempest-cloud in the South ? 
We rejoice to know that she is still a member of this 
Union, and as such she has the same interest in resisting 
this rebellion that each limb of the body has in resisting 
a poignard whose point is aimed at the heart. It is her 
house that is on fire ; has she no interest in extinguish- 
ing the conflagration ? Will she stand aloof and an- 
nounce herself neutral between the raging flames and 
the brave men who are periling their lives to subdue 
them? Hundreds of thousands of citizens of other states 
■ — men of culture and character, of thought and of toil 
— men who have a deep stake in life, and an intense ap- 
preciation of its duties and responsibilities, who know 
the worth of this blessed government of ours, and do not 
prize even their own blood above it — I say, hundreds 
of thousands of such men have left their homes, their 
-workshops, their offices, their counting-houses, and their 
fields, and are now rallying about our flag, freely offering 
their all to sustain it, and since the days that crusading 
Europe threw its hosts upon the embattled plains of 
Asia, no deeper, or more earnest, or grander spirit has 
stirred the souls of men than that which now sways 
those mighty masses whose gleaming banners are des- 
tined ere long to make bright again the earth and sky of 
the distracted South. Can Kentucky look upon this sub- 
lime spectacle of patriotism unmoved, and then say to 
herself: "I will spend neither blood ncr treasure, but I 
will shrink away while the battle rages, and after it has 
been fought and won, I will return to the camp, well 
assured that if I cannot claim the laurels, I will at least 
enjoy the blessings of the victory ?" Is this all that re- 
mains of her chivalry — of the chivalry of the land of the 



PATRIOTIC AND HEROIC ELOQUENCE. 127 

Shelbys, the Johnsons, the Aliens, the Clays, the Adairs, 
and the Davises ? Is there a Kentuckian within the 
sound of my voice to-night, "who can hear the anguished 
cry of his country as she wrestles and writhes in the 
folds of this gigantic treason, and then lay himself down 
upon his pillow w T itk this thought of neutrality, without 
feeling that he has something in his bosom which stings 
him worse than would an adder ? Have we, within the 
brief period of eighty years, descended so far from the 
mountain heights on which our fathers stood, that al- 
ready, in our degeneracy, we proclaim our blood too 
precious, our treasure too valuable to be devoted to the 
preservation of such a government as this ? They fought 
through a seven years' war, with the greatest power on 
earth, for the hope, the bare hope, of being able to found 
this republic, and now that it is no longer a hope nor an 
experiment, but a glorious reality, which has excited the 
admiration and the homage of the nations, and has cov- 
ered us with blessings as " the waters cover the channels 
of the sea," have we, their children, no years of toil, of 
sacrifice, and of battle even, if need be, to give, to save it 
from absolute destruction at the hands of men who, 
steeped in guilt, are perpetrating against us and humanity 
a crime, for which I verily believe the blackest page of 
the history of the world's darkest period furnishes no 
parallel? Can it be possible that in the history of the 
American people we have already reached a point of de- 
generacy so low, that the work of Washington and 
Franklin, of Adams and Jefferson, of Hancock and 
Henry, is to be overthrown by the morally begrimed 
and pigmied conspirators who are now tugging at its 
foundations ? It would be the overturning of the Andes 
by the miserable reptiles that are crawling in the sands at 
their base. 



128 PATRIOTIC AND HEROIC ELOQUENCE. 



The Same Subject Continued. 

But our neutral fellow-citizens in the tenderness of 
their hearts say : " This effusion of blood sickens us." 
Then do all in your power to bring it to an end. Let the 
whole strength of this commonwealth be put forth in 
support of the government, in order that the war may be 
terminated by the prompt suppression of the rebellion. 
The longer the struggle continues, the fiercer will be its 
spirit, and the more fearful the waste of life attending it. 
You therefore only aggravate the calamity you deplore 
by standing aloof from the combat. But again they say, 
" We cannot fight our brethren." Indeed. But your 
brethren can fight you, and with a good will, too. 
Wickedly and wantonly have they commenced this war 
■against you and your institutions, and ferociously are 
they prosecuting it. They take no account of the fact 
that the massacre with which they hope their swords 
will, ere long, be clogged, must be the massacre of their 
brethren. However much we may bow our heads at the 
confession, it is nevertheless true that every free people 
that have existed have been obliged, at one period or 
other of their history, to fight for their liberties against 
traitors within their own bosoms, and that people who 
have not the greatness of soul thus to fight, cannot long 
continue to be free, nor do they deserve to be so. 

There is not, and there cannot be, any neutral ground 
for a loyal people between their own government and 
those who, at the head of armies, are menacing its de- 
struction. Your inaction is not neutrality, though you 
may delude yourselves with the belief that it is so. 
With this rebellion confronting you, when you refuse to 
co-operate actively with your government in subduing it, 
you thereby condemn the government, and assume to- 
ward it an attitude of antagonism. Your inaction is a vir- 



PATRIOTIC AND HEROIC ELOQUENCE. 129 

tual indorsement of the rebellion, and if you do not there- 
by give to the rebels precisely that " aid and comfort" 
spoken of in the constitution, you certainly afford them a 
most powerful encouragement and support. That they 
regard your present position as friendly to them, is 
proved by the fact that, in a recent enactment of the 
Confederate Congress confiscating the debts due from 
their own citizens to those of loyal states, the debts due 
to the people of Kentucky are expressly excepted. Is 
not this significant ? Does it leave any room for doubt 
that the Confederate Congress suppose they have discov- 
ered, under the guise of your neutrality, a lurking sym- 
pathy for their cause which entitles you to be treated as 
friends, if not as active allies ? Patriotic as was the pur- 
pose of her apprehensive statesmen in placing her in the 
anomalous position ehe now occupies, it cannot be denied 
that Kentucky by her present attitude is exerting a po- 
tent influence in strengthening the rebellion, and is, there- 
fore, false alike to her loyalty and her fame. You may 
rest well assured that this estimate of your neutrality is 
entertained by the true men of the country in all the 
states which are now sustaining the government. With- 
in the last few weeks how many of those gallant volun- 
teers who have left home and kindred and all that is dear 
to them, and are now under a southern sun, exposing 
themselves to death from disease and to death from bat- 
tle, and are accounting their lives as nothing in the effort 
they are making for the deliverance of your government 
and theirs; how many of them have said to me in 
sadness and in longing : " Will not Kentucky help 
me ?" How my soul would have leaped could I have an- 
swered promptly, confidently, cxultingly: "Yes, she 
will." But when I thought of this neutrality my heart 
sank within me, and I did not and I could not look those 
brave men in the face. And yet I could not answer, 
" No." I could not crush myself to the earth under the 
C* 



130 PATRIOTIC AND HEKOIC ELOQUENCE. 

self-abasement of such a reply. I therefore said — and 
may my country sustain me — " I hope, I trust, I pray, 
nay, I believe, Kentucky will yet do her duty." 

If this government is to be destroyed, ask yourselves 
are you willing it shall be recorded in history that Ken- 
tucky stood by in the greatness of her strength and lifted 
not a hand to stay the catastrophe ? If it is to be 
saved, as I verily believe it is, are you willing it shall be 
written that, in the immeasurable glory which must at- 
tend the achievement, Kentucky had no part ? 

I will only add, if Kentucky wishes the waters of her 
beautiful Ohio to be dyed in blood — if she wishes her 
harvest fields, now waving in their abundance, to be 
trampled beneath the feet of hostile soldiery, as a flower- 
garden is trampled beneath the threshings of the tem- 
pest — if she wishes the homes where her loved ones are 
now gathered in peace, invaded by the proscriptive fury 
of a military despotism, sparing neither life nor property 
— if she wishes the streets of her towns and cities grown 
with grass, and the steamboats of her rivers to lie rotting 
at her wharves, then let her join the Southern Confeder- 
acy ; but if she would have the bright waters of that riv- 
er flow on in their gladness — if she would have her har- 
vests peacefully gathered to her garners — if she would 
have the lullabies of her cradles and the songs of her 
liomes uninvaded by the cries and terrors of battle — if 
she would have the streets of her towns and cities again 
filled with the hum and throng of busy trade, and her 
rivers and her shores once more vocal with the steamer's 
whistle, that anthem of a free and prosperous commerce, 
then let her stand fast by the stars and stripes, and do 
her duty and her whole duty as a member of this Union. 
Let her brave people say to the President of the United 
States : " You are our chief-magistrate ; the government 
you have in charge, and are striving to save from dis- 
honor and dismemberment, is our government; your 



PATRIOTIC AND HEROIC ELOQUENCE. 131 

cause is indeed our cause; your battles are our battles; 
make room for us, therefore, in the ranks of your armies, 
that your triumph may be our triumph also." 

Even as with the Father of us all I would plead for 
salvation, so, my countrymen, as upon my very knees, 
would I plead with you for the life, aye for the life, of 
our great and beneficent institutions. But if the traitor's 
knife, now at the throat of the republic, is to do its work, 
and this government is fated to add yet another to that 
long line of sepulchres which whiten the highway of the 
past, then my heartfelt prayer to God is, that it may be 
written in history, that the blood of its life was not found 
upon the skirts of Kentucky. 



Italy. — William Cullen Bryant. 

Voices from the mountains speak ; 

Apennines to Alps reply ; 
Vale to vale and peak to peak 
Toss an old remembered cry : 
Italy 

Shall be free : 
Such the mighty shout that fills 
All the passes of her hills. 

All the old Italian lakes 

Quiver at that quickening word ; 

Como with a thrill awakes ; 

Garda to her depths is stirred ; 

Mid the i 

Where he 

Dreaming of the elder years, 

Startled Thrasymenus hears. 

Sweeping Arno, swelling Po, 
Murmur freedom to their meads, 

Tiber swift and Liris slow 

Send strange whispers from their reeds. 



132 PATRIOTIC AND 1IEROIC ELOQUENCE. 

Italy 

Shall be free, 
Sing the glittering brooks that slide, 
Toward the sea, from Etna's side. 

Long ago was Gracchus slain : 

Brutus perished long ago ; 
Yet the living roots remain 

Whence the shoots of greatness grow. 
Yet again, 
Godlike men, 
Sprung from that heroic stem, 
Call the land to rise with them. 

They who haunt the swarming street, 
They who chase the mountain boar, 
Or, -where cliff and billow meet, 
Prune the vine or pull the oar, 
"With a stroke 
Break their yoke ; 
Slaves but yestereve were they — 
Freemen with the dawning day. 

Looking in his children's eyes, 

While his own with gladness flash, 
"Ne'er shall these," the father cries, 
" Cringe, like hounds, beneath the lash. 
These shall ne'er 
Brook to wear 
Chains that, thick with sordid rust, 
"Weigh the spirit to the dust." 

Monarchs, ye whose armies stand 
Harnessed for the battle-field I 
Pause, and from the lifted hand 
Drop the bolts of war ye wield. 
Stand aloof 
While the proof 
Of the people's might is given ; 
Leave their kings to them and heaven. 

Stand aloof, and see the oppressed 
Chase the oppressor, pale with fear. 



PATRIOTIC AND HEROIC ELOQUENCE. 133 

As the fresh winds of the west 

Blow the misty valleys clear. 

Stand and see 

Italy 

Cast the gyves she wears no more 

To the gulfs that steep her shore. 



Extracts from an Address, July 4th, 1861. — 
John Jay, Esq. 

My Fellow-Countrymen : We have assembled to 
celebrate the eighty-fifth birthday of American inde- 
pendence, and we come together under circumstances 
that seem to make us contemporaries and co-actors, as 
it were, with our fathers of the revolution. The crisis 
which they met, and which their heroism decided after 
a seven years' war with Great Britain, again meets us 
face to face. The early scenes of their struggle for con- 
stitutional liberty, have found in our recent experience 
an historic parallel of even chronological exactness. 

The blood of Massachusetts, shed at Lexington on the 
19th of April, IV 75, was not shed more gloriously than 
that of the sons of the same old commonwealth, who, 
marching by our national highway, to the defence of our 
common capital, were slain at Baltimore on the 19th of 
April, 1861. 

The midnight ride of Paul Revere, famed in history 
and song, rousing the sleepers as he passed to hasten to 
defend their country, created no deeper emotion among 
the colonists of that day, than did our electric wires, 
flashing far and wide the news of the assault on Sumter 
and the massacre at Baltimore, and thrilling with a 
simultaneous burst of sympathy the loyal heart of the 
American people. 



134 PATRIOTIC AND HEROIC ELOQUENCE. 

On the 4th of July, 17*76, the Congress that met in the 
state-house at Philadelphia approved the solemn instru- 
ment that declared the independence of the American 
colonies, and announced to the world the birth of a na- 
tion. Eighty-five years have rolled by : the actors in 
that eventful scene have long since gone to their graves : 
their names belong to history : their sons have grown to 
manhood and age, and have followed them to the unseen 
world : and we of the third and fourth generation occu- 
py the stage they trod, and represent the nationality 
which then was born. Eighty-five years of almost unin- 
terrupted prosperity and unexampled growth ! eighty- 
five years of culture and experience in a century of prog- 
ress such as the world has never seen before ! eighty-five 
years of thoughtful reflection on the character of the men 
who laid the foundation of our national glory and of the 
broad principles of right on which they based the edifice 
of American freedom ! 

Those years have passed ; their results are written on 
the map of America, on the page of history, and to-day, 
the 4th of July, 1861, the American Congress convenes 
again, at the call of the president, at the capital bearing 
the name of Washington, to meet the question, whether 
the republic is to be maintained in its integrity with the 
constitution proclaimed by Washington, based on the 
will of the majority, or whether it is to be sundered and 
shattered by a defeated faction that sets at defiance the 
will of the people and would trample the constitution in 
the dust. 

If ever the spirits of the departed are permitted to 
revisit the scenes they loved, and hover like angels 
around the steps of their successors, we may suppose 
that Hancock, and the Adamses, Sherman and Wolcott, 
Carroll and Livingston, Jefferson and Franklin, Robert 
and Lewis Morris, Wilson and Rush, and all their noble 
compeers, look down from heaven in this hour upon the 



PATRIOTIC AND HEROIC ELOQUENCE. 135 

Congress at "Washington ; and God grant that the sturdy 
spirit which inspired the first Congress may equally in- 
spire the last ! 

"Whatever may he onr fate," said John Adams, with 
prophetic vision, after the adoption of the declaration, 
" he assured that this declaration will stand. It may cost 
treasure and it may cost blood, but it will richly com- 
pensate for both. Through the thick gloom of the pres- 
ent I see the brightness of the future as the sun in 
heaven. We shall .make this a glorious, an immortal day. 
When we are in our graves our children will honor it. 
They will celebrate it with thanksgiving, with festivities, 
with bonfires, with illuminations. On its annual return 
they will shed tears, not of subjection and slavery, not of 
agony and distress, but of exultation, of gratitude and of 
joy. Sir, before God, I believe the hour is come : all 
that I have, all that I am, all that I hope for in this life, 
I am now ready here to stake upon it, and I leave off as 
I began, that, live or die, sink or swim, survive or perish, 
I am for the declaration. It is my living sentiment, and 
by the blessing of God it shall be my dying sentiment — 
independence now, and independence forever !" 

The integrity and independence of our country are 
again in peril, and to-day the issue is with us. We come 
together now, not, as in past years, to rejoice over a na- 
tional domain boundless in extent, peopled by country- 
men differing, it may be, in their views and institutions, 
but united in loyalty and affection, at peace in their own 
borders, and with the great arm of the Union protecting 
its citizens alike on sea or land, at home or in foreign 
climes. But we meet in sadness to overlook a divided 
nation, and to listen to the tramp of martial forces larger 
than ever before trod the soil of America : the one army 
bearing proudly aloft the stars and stripes, and keeping 
step to the music of the Union ; the other grasping the 
banner of rebellion and the black flag of piracy, proclaim- 



136 PATRIOTIC AND HEROIC ELOQUENCE. 

ing death to the constitution and the Union, and ruin to 
the commerce of the republic. * * * 

To meet the rebel force arrayed against the capital, 
President Lincoln has called upon the loyal states, and at 
the word, fresh from the plough, the loom and the work- 
shop, fresh from college seats and the professor's chair, 
from the bar, the pulpit, and the counting-house, fresh 
from every department of American industry, the army 
of the Union is in the field, and the world awaits the 
impending crisis. Europe looks on with undisguised and 
wondering interest, and while France and Germany seem 
instinctively to appreciate our situation, the British cabi- 
net and the British press have strangely blundered, and 
have muttered something we do not understand, about 
"rights of belligerents," "a wicked war," and the "burst- 
ing of the bubble of democracy." 

Such, in brief, is our position at home and abroad, and 
this day is destined to be memorable — perhaps as memo- 
rable in history as that which we have met to celebrate. 
The action of the Congress now assembled will decide 
whether the national independence established against 
the united strength of the British empire in '76 is to fall 
ignominiously before the attacks of a rebel minority of 
our own countrymen in '61. 

It is to decide the question whether in the next cen- 
tury our descendants shall refer to the fourth of July as 
the forgotten birthday of an extinct republic, or whether, 
when we shall sleep with our fathers and our children 
shall slumber by our side, their grandsons shall meet as 
we do this day to bless our memories as we bless those 
of our revolutionary sires : to spread to the breeze, from 
the Atlantic to the Pacific, on every hill-side and in every 
valley, the flag of our Union, the stars and stripes that 
we so proudly love, and join their voices in swelling the 
cry of Adams : "Independence now, and independence 
forever !" 



PATRIOTIC AND HEROIC ELOQUENCE. 137 

While the great issue, the success or failure of the 
American experiment, the continuance of our Union or 
its disintegration, rests immediately with the president 
and with Congress, it rests in an almost equal degree 
upon each one of us. The American people are at once 
citizens and sovereigns — the fountain and source of the 
supreme authority of the land, and to us, the people, will 
our servants in Congress naturally and properly look for 
guidance in this extremity. Already have you seen how 
fairly an honest executive represents the sentiments of 
the majority of his countrymen, availing himself of their 
counsels, gathering strength from their energy and de- 
termination, and so directing the government that its 
action keeps time to the beating of the national pulse. 
Already, in response to the nation's call, has the national 
government arisen in gigantic strength from the depths 
of imbecility to which it had fallen, to a position of gran- 
deur, dignity and power, which has silenced the half- 
uttered sarcasms of European declaimers about the in- 
ternal weakness of popular institutions. 

Most of you — perhaps all of you — have made up your 
minds deliberately intelligently and dispassionately in 
regard to your duty; and it is a general and proper 
sentiment among us that this is a time for energetic ac- 
tion, not for discussion. But still, as I am here, honored 
by your appointment, to say something befitting the oc- 
casion, I think you will permit me, if indeed you do not 
regard it as my especial province, to speak frankly of our 
present duty ; to say something of the great theme which 
engrosses the nation ; of which we think when we rise in 
the morning and when we retire at night, as we go to 
our work and return to our meals, when we open the 
morning paper for news and close it for reflection, when 
we kneel at the family altar and by our own bed-sides, 
the one great overwhelming subject, the issue of this 
rebellion, the destiny of our country. * * * 



138 PATRIOTIC AND HEROIC ELOQUENCE. 

The eyes of the whole world are this day fixed upon 
you. To Europeans themselves, European questions sink 
to insignificance compared with the American question 
now to he decided. Rise, my countrymen, as did our 
fathers on the day we celehrate, to the majestic grandeur 
of this question in its twofold aspect, as regards Amer- 
ica, and as regards the world. Rememher that with the 
fiiilure of the American republic will fall the wisest sys- 
tem of republican government which the wisdom of man 
has yet invented, and the hopes of popular freedom cher- 
ished throughout the globe. 

Let us, standing by our fathers' graves, swear anew, 
and teach the oath to our children, that, with God's help, 
the American republic, clasping this continent in its em- 
brace, shall stand unmoved, though all the powers of 
slavery, piracy, and European jealousy should combine 
to overthrow it ; that we shall have in the future, as we 
have had in the past, one country, one constitution and 
one destiny ; and that when we shall have passed from 
earth, and the acts of to-day shall be matter of history, 
and the dark power now seeking our overthrow shall 
have been itself overthrown, our sons may gather strength 
from our example in every contest with despotism that 
time may have in store to try their virtue, and that they 
may rally under the stars and stripes to battle for free- 
dom and the rights of man, with our olden war-cry, 
" Liberty and union, now and forever, one and insepar- 
able." 



On the Death of Lieutenant Chas. G. Hunter, 
IT. S. K— J. E. Tuel. 

The battle's din, the ocean's roar, 

For thee ha.ve ceased their ceaseless strife, 
Thy barque hath reached the distant shore, 
Thy freight of life! 



PATRIOTIC AND HEROIC ELOQUENCE. 139 

No more for thee the vessel's pride, 

No more the curbless sea thy friend, 
Thy spirit hard as it to guide, 
As it to bend ! 

But, chained as was the restless soul 

That filched the lightning fire from liigh, 
Thy rock was proud Ambition's goal, 
"Where thou wouldst die I 

Thy native element to thee 

Imparted strength and fostered hope, 
The warring billow of the sea, 
Thy spirit's scope ! 

The sudden storm no order knows, 

The cannon's mouth asks not its aim — 
Onward the whirlwind missive goes, 
To death or fame 1 

The storm may scatter huh and deck, 

The cannon gather wounds and death — 
Thou wouldst incur like these the wreck, 
Or yield thy breath ! 

The daring soul no danger knows, 
Its star of glory points the way, 
The sun, which bright with halo glows, 
Must bhnd as sway I 

And thou, beneath its dazzling glare, 
Caught from its fire its lurid flame, 
And midst its spots of blemish bare 
Wrote bright thy name I 

But yet the undimmed stars will tell, 
Whatever clouds obscure the sun, 
That when the call of battle fell, 
Thy duty done ! 

The surging roar, the peoples' wave, 

"When thou wast foremost in thy day, 
May close its voice above thy grave, 
And pass away I 



ltt(» PATRIOTIC AND HEROIC ELOQUENCE. 

Thy mem'ry not ! so long as deeds 

Which, rouse the spirits of the deep, 
When for our flag Decatur bleeds, 
And heroes sleep I 

Farewell to thee ! Life's battle o'er ! 

Thy barque hath passed the earthly goal ; 
No more for thee the ocean's roar, 
Or earth's dark shoal ! 

Weep ! in the hour when glory cries, 

The fame that glistens with her tear, 
Then with the passing tribute dries 
Upon her bier I 

Farewell to thee ! Life's battle o'er ! 

Thy barque hath passed the earthly goal ; 
No more for thee the ocean's roar, 
Or earth's dark shoal ! 



Republican Government. — JV. Y. Ledger. 

"Republicanism is a failure," say the monarchists 
of Europe, and now and then a thick-witted, degenerate 
American echoes the miserable drivel. That crowned 
heads, and privileged orders that can only exist and 
flourish in the sunshine of royalty, should view the pass- 
ing clouds in our political firmament as omens of the 
speedy and final downfall of republican institutions, is not 
surprising. The wish is father to the thought. Neither 
is it wonderful that peoples who have been taught for 
ages to believe that the right to govern is transmitted 
by descent, should place some faith in this hope-engen- 
dered notion of their superiors. But that any American 
should suppose republicanism a failure is monstrous — 
that he should permit such an absurdity to escape his 
lips, disgraceful alike to his patriotism and his intelli- 
gence. 



PATRIOTIC AXD IIEKOIC ELOQUENCE. 141 

See what free institutions have clone for our country 
since it cut the ligament that bound it to a throne. Its 
career has been the miracle of history. It may be said, 
perhaps, that England, too, has made great progress 
during the same period. But how? Simply because 
her government has progressed in liberality — because 
popular privileges have been extended within her bor- 
ders — because she has approximated more nearly every 
year, the institutions and the policy of which some of her 
wiseacres now predict the overthrow. Our example has 
given a moral force to the political suggestions and de- 
mands of her people, which the crown and the aristoc- 
racy have not found it prudent to resist, and to which 
they have from time to time yielded more and more, as 
the pressure increased. In all human probability, the 
rotten borough system would now exist in England if 
universal suffrage had never been introduced in America. 

The ameliorations of despotic rule which have taken 
place in various parts of Europe during the present cen- 
tury are due to the same cause. They have all been 
indirect concessions to the republican principle. The 
" great awakening" of the transatlantic millions com- 
menced with the commencement of our independence, 
and the roused many have been ever since becoming 
more formidable to the privileged few. From us the 
former have drunk light, hope and encouragement — from 
us the latter have learned the danger of carrying tyrannt 
to extremes. If there had been no United States, there 
had been no United Italy, and millions of Russian serfs 
would now be grovelling in their chains. 

For eighty years a glorious political revolution, some- 
times silent, sometimes turbulent, has been going on in 
all parts of Europe. Its march has been occasionally 
checked and suspended, but never stopped. What set 
and kept the ball in motion ? The establishment and 
maintenance of American independence ; the example of 



142 PATRIOTIC AND HEROIC ELOQUENCE. 

our success and of our prosperity. " Revolutions," said 
a profound thinker, "never go backward." This revo- 
lution toward the right is as sure to progress as the sun 
to shine. The hand of God is visible in it, and to doubt 
it is to doubt Him. 

We do not believe that monarchy can survive the uni- 
versal diffusion of such knowledge as the present systems 
of public education in enlightened Christian countries are 
designed to impart. Schoolcraft will ultimately kill king- 
craft. When there shall be no ignorance there will be 
no kings, and royalty of mind will constitute the " right 
divine" to govern, instead of " royal blood." 

It is true that republicanism has its drawbacks. No 
form of human government can be perfect. But it has 
this vast advantage over monarchism, that it is not inhe- 
rently vicious, and therefore is not necessarily incapable 
of securing the "greatest good of the greatest number." 
On the contrary, the republican system of government 
is, in principle and theory, natural, pure and noble, and 
with the growth of popular intelligence and public vir- 
tue, its practical working must continually improve. 



Recitative and Song of the Union* — 1861. — Wm. 
Oland Bourne. 

" To arms ! to arms 1" they cry, 
"Defend that flag, or die I" 
" To arms 1" amid their tears, 
" To arms!" as in the years 
When heroes saw the field of battle nigh ; 
" To arms !" replied the hills ; 

"To arms I" the mountains grand; 
" To arms let him who wills 1" 

o'er the freeman's land ; 

*An extract. 



PATRIOTIC AND HEROIC ELOQUENCE. 143 

It leaped from hill to hill, 

. It shook the mountain crag, 
For love's electric thrill 

Still kept the starry hag ; 

" To arms I" replied the plains., 

The hot blood throbbing through the veins ; 

For millions rallied with the vow, 

" We strike for Freedom surely now, 

In heaven's great name the damning wrong shall bowl" 

From the steep mountain side, 
From the deep flowing tide, 
From the green prairies wide, 

" Forward !" they cry ; 
From the far eastern hills, 
From the pure flowing rills, 
From the great busy mills, 

" Onward for aye 1" 
From the forge, old and grim, 
From the mine, dark and dim, 
Swelled the bold hero-hymn, 

"Onward or die!" 
And to their arms they sprung, 
Freedom on every tongue, 
True to the songs they sung, 

Filling the sky : — 

" Arm brothers I arm ! for the foe is before us, 
Filled with deep hate to the Union we love ; 
Onward we press, with the loud-swelling chorus, 
Shaking the earth and the heaven above. 
Chorus — Arm, brothers, arml 

For the strife be ye ready 1 

With an eye ever steady I 

Arm, brothers, arml 

" On, brothers, on! for they haste to the battle ! 

The treason is theirs whom we trusted so long ; 
For Freedom we fight — not man as a chattel, — 

And Union shall triumph — the Right over Wrong. 
Chorus — Arm, brothers, arm ! 



144 PATRIOTIC AND HEROIC ELOQUENCE. 

" Haste, brothers, haste ! for the moments are flying ! 

An hour now lost may undo all the past ! 
And millions of mourners now burdened are sighing, 

And terror-struck bow in the force of the blast 1 
Chorus — Arm, brothers, arm I 

" Come, brothers, come I It is time for the starting ! 

We pray on the field 1 At the altar they pray 
"Who mourn for our loss. Up, now, for the parting — 

Our children shah bless us for valor to-day ! 
Chorus — Arm, brothers, arm! 

"Swear, brothers, swear! For the Union forever I 
Eesting not now till each traitor is riven ! 

God for our land, and of Freedom the Giver, 
Onward we haste in the sunshine of heaven. 
Chorus — Arm, brothers, arm!" 

" She lives I" the freeman cried, 
" She lives !" my heart replied, 
"She lives!" rolled o'er the plain 

And thrilled the waking land 
That caught it back again 

From mountains old and grand ; 
And starry banners waved 

From peak, and dome, and spire, 
The flag of love and peace, 

And glory's quenchless fire ! 

toiling millions on the old world's shore ! 

Look up, rejoicing, for she is not dead I 
The soul is living as it lived before, 

"When sainted heroes spurned the tyrant's tread ; 
The strife is earnest and the day wears on, 

And ages tremble with the mighty blow — 
Beyond the conflict is a glorious dawn, 

A rapturous birth of Freedom out of woe ! 
The clouds may gather, and the storm be long, 

And lightnings leap across the darkened sky, 
But Freedom lives to triumph over wrong, 

It still will live, for Truth can never die ! 



PATRIOTIC AND HEKOIC ELOQ1 ISNCF 145 



Character of Washington. — Fisher Ames. 

There has scarcely appeared a really great man, whose 
character has been more admired in his lifetime, or less 
correctly understood by his admirers. When it is com- 
prehended, it is no easy task to delineate its excellences 
in such a manner as to give to the portrait both interest 
and resemblance ; for it requires thought and study to 
understand the true ground of the superiority of his char- 
acter over many others, whom he resembled in the prin- 
ciples of action, and even in the manner of acting. But 
perhaps he excels all the great men that ever lived, in the 
steadiness of his adherence to his maxims of life, and in 
the uniformity of all his conduct to the same maxims. 
These maxims, though wise, were yet not so remarkable 
for their wisdom as for their authority over his life ; for, 
if there were any errors in his judgment (and he discov- 
ered as few as any man), we know of no blemishes in his 
virtue. He was the patriot without reproach ; he loved 
his country well enough to hold his success in serving it 
an ample recompense. Thus far self-love and love of 
country coincided ; but when his country needed sacri- 
fices that no other man could, or perhaps would, be will- 
ing to make, he did not even hesitate. This was virtue 
in its most exalted character. More than once he put 
his fimae at hazard, when he had reason to think it would 
be sacrificed, at least in this age. Two instances cannot 
be denied ; when the army was disbanded, and again, 
when he stood, like Leonidas at the pass of Thermopylae, 
to defend our independence against France. 

It is, indeed, almost as difficult to draw his character, 
as the portrait of Virtue. The reasons are similar : our 
ideas of moral excellence are obscure, because they are 
complex, and we are obliged to resort to illustrations. 
Washington's example is the happiest to show what vir- 
7 



146 PATRIOTIC AND HEROIC ELOQUENCE. 

tue is ; and, to delineate his character, we naturally ex- 
patiate on the beauty of virtue ; much must be felt, and 
much imagined. His pre-eminence is not so much to be 
seen in the display of any one virtue, as in the possession 
of them all, and in the practice of the most difficult. 
Hereafter, therefore, his character must be studied be- 
fore it will be striking ; and then it will be admitted as 
a model, a precious one to a free republic. 

It is no less difficult to speak of his talents. They 
were adapted to lead, without dazzling mankind ; and 
to draw forth and employ the talents of others, without 
being misled by them. In this he was certainly superior, 
that he neither mistook nor misapplied his own. His 
great modesty and reserve would have concealed them, 
if great occasions had not called them forth ; and then, 
as he never spoke from the affectation to shine, nor acted 
from any sinister motives, it is from their effects only 
that we are to judge of their greatness and extent. In 
public trusts, where men, acting conspicuously, are cau- 
tious, and in those private concerns where few conceal 
or resist their weaknesses, Washington was uniformly 
great, pursuing right conduct from right maxims. His 
talents were such as assist a sound judgment, and ripen 
with it. His prudence was consummate, and seemed to 
take the direction of his powers and passions ; for, as a 
soldier, he was more solicitous to avoid mistakes that 
might be fatal, than to perform exploits that are brilliant; 
and, as a statesman, to adhere to just principles, however 
old, than to pursue novelties ; and therefore, in both 
characters, his qualities were singularly adapted to the 
interest, and were tried in the greatest perils of the 
country. His habits of inquiry were so far remarkable, 
that he was never satisfied with investigating, nor de- 
sisted from it, so long as he had less than all the light 
that he could obtain upon a subject, and then he made 
his decision without bias. 



PATRIOTIC AND HEROIC ELOQUENCE. 1.47 

This command over the partialities that so generally 
stop men short, or turn them aside in their pursuit of 
truth, is one of the chief causes of his unvaried course of 
right conduct in so many difficult scenes, where every 
human actor must be presumed to err. If he had strong 
passions, he had learned to subdue them, and to be mod- 
erate and mild. If he had weaknesses, he concealed 
them, which is rare, and excluded them from the govern- 
ment of his temper and conduct, which is still more rare. 
If he loved fame, he never made improper compliances 
for what is called popularity. The fame he enjoyed is 
of the kind that will last forever ; yet it was rather the 
effect thau the motive of his conduct. Some future Plu- 
tarch will search for a parallel to his character. Epami- 
nondas is perhaps the brightest name of all antiquity. 
Our Washington resembled him in the purity and ardor 
of his patriotism ; and like him he first exalted the glory 
of his country. There, it is to be hoped, the parallel 
ends; for Thebes fell with Epaminondas. But such com- 
parisons cannot be pursued far without departing from 
the similitude. For we shall find it as difficult to com- 
pare great men as great rivers. Some we admire for the 
length and rapidity of their current, and the grandeur 
of their cataracts ; others for the majestic silence and 
fulness of their streams : we cannot bring them together 
to measure the difference of their waters. The unam- 
bitious life of Washington, declining fame, yet courted 
by it, seemed, like the Ohio, to choose its long way 
through solitudes, diffusing fertility ; or, like his own 
Potomac, widening and deepening his channel as he ap- 
proaches the sea, and displaying most the usefulness and 
serenity of his greatness toward the end of his course. 
Such a citizen would do honor to any country. The con- 
stant affection and veneration of his country will show 
that it was worthy of such a citizen. 

However his military fame may excite the wonder of 



148 PATRIOTIC AND HEROIC ELOQUENCE. 

mankind, it is chiefly by his civil magistracy, that his ex- 
ample will instruct them. Great generals have arisen in 
all ages of the world, and perhaps most in those of despot- 
ism and darkness. In times of violence and convulsion, 
they rise, by the force of the whirlwind, high enough to 
ride in it, and direct the storm. Like meteors, they glare 
on the black clouds with a splendor, that, while it dazzles 
and terrifies, makes nothing visible but the darkness. 
The fame of heroes is indeed growing vulgar ; they mul- 
tiply in every long war ; they stand in history and thick- 
en in their ranks, almost as undistinguished as their own 
soldiers. 

But suoh a chief-magistrate as Washington appears, 
like the pole star in a clear sky, to direct the skilful 
statesman. His presidency will form an epoch, and be 
distinguished as the age of Washington. Already it as- 
sumes its high place in the political region. Like the 
milky way, it whitens along its allotted portion of the 
hemisphere. The latest generations of men will survey, 
through the telescope of history, the space where so 
many virtues blend their rays, and delight to separate 
them into groups and distinct virtues. As the best illus- 
tration of them, the living monument to which the first 
of patriots would have chosen to consign his fame, it is 
my earnest prayer to Heaven that our country may sub- 
sist, even to that late day, in the plenitude of its liberty 
and happiness, and mingle its mild glory with Wash- 
ington's. 



Sword Chant. — William Motherwell. 

'Tis not the gray hawk's flight o'er mountain and mere ; 
'Tis not the fleet hound's course, tracking the deer ; 
'Tis not the light hoof-print of black steed or gray, 
Though sweltering it gallop a long summer's day. 



PATRIOTIC AND HEROIC ELOQUENCE. 149 

Which mete forth the lordships I challenge as mine : 

Ha ! ha ! 'tis the good brand 

I clutch in my strong hand, 
That can their broad marches and numbers define. 

Land Giver ! I kiss thee. 

Dull builders of houses, base tillers of earth, 
Gaping, ask me what lordships I owned at my birth ; 
But the pale fools wax mute when I point with my sword 
East, west, north, and south, shouting, " There am I lord!" 
Wold and waste, town and tower, hill, valley, and stream, 

Trembling, bow to my sway, 

In the fierce battle fray, 
When the star that rules fate is this falchion's red gleam. 

Might Giver 1 I kiss thee. 

I've heard great harps sounding in brave bower and hall ; 
I've drank the sweet music that bright lips let fall ; 
I've hunted in greenwood, and heard small birds sing; 
But away with this idle and cold jargoningl 
The music I love is the shout of the brave, 

The yell of the dying, 

The scream of the flying, 
When this arm wields death's sickle, and garners the grave. 

Jot Giver ! I kiss thee. 

Far isles of the ocean thy lightning hath known, 

And wide o'er the mainland thy horrors have shone. 

Great sword of my father, stern joy of his hand ! 

Thou hast carved his name deep on the stranger's red strand, 

And won him the glory of undying song. 

Keen cleaver of gay crests, 

Sharp piercer of broad breasts, 
Grim slayer of heroes, and scourge of the strong ! 

Fame Giver 1 I kiss thee. 

In a love more abiding than that the heart knows 
For maiden more lovely than summer's first rose, 
My heart's knit to thine, and lives but for thee ; 
In dreaming of gladness thou'rt dancing with me, 
Brave measures of madness, in some battle-field, 

Where armor is ringing, 

And noble blood springing, 



150 PATRIOTIC AND HEROIC ELOQUENCE. 

And cloven yarn helmet, stout hauberk, and shield. 
Death Givee ! I kiss thee. 

The smile of a maiden's eye soon may depart; 
And light is the faith of fair woman's heart ; 
Changeful as light clouds, and wayward as wind, 
Be the passions that govern weak woman's mind. 
But thy metal's as true as its polish is bright : 

When ills wax in number, 

Thy love will not slumber ; 
But, starlike, burns fiercer the darker the night. 

Heart Gladdener ! I kiss thee. 

My kindred have perished by war or by wave ; 
Now, childless and sireless, I long for the grave. 
When the path of our glory is shadowed in death, 
With me thou wilt slumber below the brown heath ; 
Thou wilt rest on my bosom, and with it decay ; 

While harps shall be ringing, 

And scalds shall be singing 
The deeds we have done in our old fearless day. 

Song Giver ! I kiss thee. 



.National Eecollections the Foundation of Na- 
tional Character. — Hon. Edward Everett. 

And how is the spirit of a free people to be formed, 
and animated, and cheered, but out of the storehouse of 
its historic recollections ? Are we to be eternally ring- 
ing the changes upon Marathon and Therniopylse ; and 
going back to read in obscure texts of Greek and Latin 
of the exemplars of patriotic virtue ? I thank God that 
we can find them nearer home, in our own country, on 
our own soil ; that strains of the noblest sentiment that 
ever swelled in the breast of man, are breathing to us 
out of every page of our country's history, in the native 
eloquence of our mother tongue ; that the colonial and 
provincial councils of America exhibit to us models of 



PATRIOTIC AND IIEEOIC ELOQUENCE. 151 

the spirit and character which gave Greece and Rome 
their name and their praise among the nations. Here 
we ought to go for our instruction ; the lesson is plain, 
it is clear, it is applicable. When we go to ancient his- 
tory, we are bewildered with the difference of manners 
and institutions. We are willing to pay our tribute of 
applause to the memory of Leonidas, who fell nobly for 
his country in the face of his foe. But when we trace 
him to his home, we are confounded at the reflection, 
that the same Spartan heroism, to which he sacrificed 
himself at Thermopylae, would have led him to tear his 
own child, if it had happened to be a sickly babe — the 
very object for which all that is kind and good in man 
rises up to plead-— from the bosom of its mother, and 
carry it out to be eaten by the wolves of Taygetus. We 
feel a glow of admiration at the heroism displayed at 
Marathon, by the ten thousand champions of invaded 
Greece ; but we cannot forget that the tenth part of the 
number were slaves, unchained from the workshops and 
door-posts of their masters, to go and fight the battles 
of freedom. I do not mean that these examples are to 
destroy the interest with which we read the history of 
ancient times ; they possibly increase that interest by the 
very contrasts they exhibit. But they do warn us, if we 
need the warning, to seek our great practical lessons of 
patriotism at home ; out of the exploits and sacrifices of 
which our own country is the theatre ; out of the char- 
acters of our own fathers. Them we know — the high- 
souled, natural, unaffected, the citizen heroes. We know 
what happy firesides they left for the cheerless camp. We 
know with what pacific habits they dared the perils of the 
field. There is no mystery, no romance, no madness, un- 
cle]- the name of chivalry, about them. It is all resolute, 
manly resistance for conscience's and liberty's sake, not 
merely of an overwhelming power, but of all the force 
of long- rooted habits and native love of order and peace. 



152 PATRIOTIC AND HEROIC ELOQUENCE. 

Above all, their Hood calls to us from the soil which 
we tread ; it beats in our veins ; it cries to us not merely 
in the thrilling words of one of the first victims in this 
cause : " My sons, scorn to be slaves !" but it cries with 
a still more moving eloquence : " My sons, forget not 
your fathers !" Fast, oh ! too fast, with all our efforts 
to prevent it, their precious memories are dying away. 
Notwithstanding our numerous written memorials, much 
of what is known of those eventful times dwells but in 
the recollections of a few revered survivors, and with 
them is rapidly perishing, unrecorded and irretrievable. 
How many prudent counsels, conceived in perplexed 
times ; how many heart-stirring words, uttered when lib- 
erty was treason ; how many brave and heroic deeds, 
performed when the halter, not the laurel, was the prom- 
ised meed of patriotic daring — are already lost and for- 
gotten in the graves of their authors ! How little do 
we — although we have been permitted to hold converse 
with the venerable remnants of that day — how little do 
we know of their dark and anxious hours ; of their se- 
cret meditations ; of the hurried and perilous events of 
the momentous struggle ! And while they are dropping 
around us like the leaves of autumn, while scarce a week 
passes that does not call away some member of the vet- 
eran ranks, already so sadly thinned, shall we make no 
effort to hand down the traditions of their day to our 
children ; to pass the torch of liberty — which we received 
in all the splendor of its first enkindling— bright and 
flaming, to those who stand next us on the line ; so that, 
when we shall come to be gathered to the dust where 
our fathers are laid, we may say to our sons and our 
grandsons : " If we did not amass, we have not squan- 
dered your inheritance of glory !" 



PATRIOTIC AND HEROIC ELOQUENCE. 153 



Not Yet. — William Call n Bryant. 

Oh, country, marvel of the earth ! 

Oh, realm to sudden greatness grown I 
The age that gloried in thy birth, 

Shall it behold thee overthrown ? 
Shall traitors lay that greatness low ? . 
No, Land of Hope and Blessing, No ! 

And we who wear thy glorious name, 
Shall we, like cravens, stand apart, 

"When those whom thou hast trusted aim 
The death-blow at thy generous heart? 

Forth goes the battle-cry, and lo ! 

Hosts rise in harness, shouting, No ! 

And they who founded, in our land, 
The power that rules from sea to sea, 

Bled they in vain, or vainly planned 
To leave their country great and free ? 

Their sleeping ashes, from below, 

Send up the thrilling murmur, No ! 

Knit they the gentle ties which long 
These sister states were proud to wear, 

And forged the kindly links so strong 
For idle hands in sport to tear — 

For scornful hands aside to throw ? 

No, by our fathers' memory, No I 

Our humming marts, our iron ways, 

Our wind-tossed woods on mountain crest, 

The hoarse Atlantic, with his bays, 
The calm, broad Ocean of the West, 

And Mississippi's torrent-flow, 

And loud Niagara, answer, No ! 

Not yet the hour is nigh, when they ' 

Who deep in Eld's dim twilight sit, 

Earth's ancient kings, shall rise and say, 
" Proud country, welcome to the pit I 

So soon art thou, like us, brought low ?" 

No, sullen group of shadows, No ! 



154 PATRIOTIC AND HEROIC ELOQUENCE. 

For now, behold, the arm that gave 
The victory in our fathers' day, 

Strong, as of old, to guard and save — 
That mighty arm which none can stay 

On clouds above and fields below, 

Writes, in men's sight, the answer, No I 



Tomb of Washington. — Hon. Joseph W. Savage* 

I earnestly hope that this resolution will be adopted 
by the house without a dissenting vote. The subject is one 
of deep interest to every man who first drew his breath 
on American soil. Sir, it was beautifully said of Washing- 
ton, that "God made him childless that the nation might 
call him Father." Mount Vernon was his home; it is 
now his grave. How fitting, then, sir, it is that we, his 
children, should be the owners of the homestead, and of 
our father's sepulchre. No stranger's money should buy 
it, and no stranger's hand should drive the ploughshare 
over ashes sacred to every American. ]STo mere individ- 
ual is worthy to be the owner of a spot enriched with 
such hallowed memories. The mortal remains of the na- 
tion's idol should not be subject to the whim, caprice, or 
cupidity of any man. These memorials are national, and 
to the nation they should belong ; and it is the duty of 
every citizen to guard them from violence and dishonor. 
Sir, no monument has ever been erected over the grave 
of Washington. He needs none but that which rises in 
majestic grandeur before the gaze of the world, in the 
existence of this great republic, with its millions of people 
rejoicing in the light and liberty of a free government. 
While the stars and stripes waving above every capital, 
shah symbolize our national union, will any ask where is 

* A speech delivered in the Senate of New York, on a resolution calling on 
Congress to purchase Mount Vernon. 



PATEIOTrO AND HEROIC ELOQUENCE. 155 

the monument to Washington ? I believe, sir, that his 
name will prove more lasting than marble or brass. 
When every structure which filial love and gratitude 
may erect shall have crumbled to dust, the fame of our 
patriot father will still remain the theme of study and 
admiration. 

There has been but one Washington, and God in His 
goodness gave him to us. Let us cherish his dust and 
reA'ere his memory. Let us together own his mansion 
and tomb. Let the youth of our nation make pilgrim- 
ages to the sacred spot, and slake the thirst of unhal- 
lowed ambition at the well where Washington was wont 
to draw ; and when patriotism declines, let the vestals 
of liberty rekindle the flame at the fireside of the nation's 
sire. Thus, sir, may we do much to keep alive, through 
successive generations, that patriotic fire which burns in 
the heart of every true American. Sir, no man can read 
the life of Washington without rising up from the task a 
better man : nor can a freeman step within the sacred 
precincts of Mount Vernon, and not feel the power of 
those associations which environ him. The troubled sea 
of passion in his soul subsides, and he seems to hear a 
voice whispering to his spirit, "Peace, be still, for Wash- 
ington lies here." Who could visit the farm of Wash- 
ington and not experience a new thrill of patriotism ; or 
who, without a new incentive to love his country, could 
ramble through that garden ; stand in the hall where he- 
roes of the revolution were welcomed and refreshed ; sit 
down in the library where Washington studied and med- 
itated, and behold the chamber in which he slept and died? 

Sir, I am no prophet. But when from such sacred 
memories as these, I turn to view the opposite picture, 
the veil of futurity seems to be lifted. I will suppose 
that this opportunity is unimproved. That cherished in- 
heritance which, with characteristic patriotism, the family 
of Washington now offer to the country, is foi-feited to 



156 PATRIOTIC AND HEROIC ELOQUENCE. 

parsimony. That family pass away, and with it the last 
hope of securing this peculiar treasure. The heritage 
enshrined in the hearts of millions is the subject of spec- 
ulation. Mammon, the earth-ruling demon, flaps his dark 
wing over the consecrated spot, and dooms it to his most 
accursed uses. It becomes the resort of the idle, a den 
of gamblers and inebriates. But I forbear ; I can pur- 
sue this picture no further. If such desecration is to be- 
fall the home and the grave of Washington, then let the 
curtain fall which hides the future from my view ; that 
day of shame I pray not to see. 

It needs no prophet's eye to scan along the line of 
time, the majestic outline of our nation's destiny, when 
the fruits of our free government shall be more and more 
developed, until this vast continent shall be peopled with 
freemen from sea to sea ; when the fame of the nation 
shall reach the farthest islands and shores — when our star 
of empire, radiant with the beams of liberty, shall have 
grown to such magnitude as to attract the eyes and 
guide the steps of all nations, and when some queen of 
Sheba shall come over seas and continents to behold our 
greatness, and see the happy results of the wisdom of 
Washington — then, sir, will Mount Vernon be sought, 
and thousands, now unborn, will wish to kiss the earth 
which cradled, and now covers the Father of his Coun- 
try. How will we appear in that millennial day of our 
nation's destiny, if it shall be truly recorded that the 
most sacred spot which God committed to our custody 
was thrown away a sacrifice to parsimony, or some fash- 
ionable fine-spun theories, with which true patriotism has 
no fellowship ? Will not every American blush with 
shame, and wish that he could cover from the gaze of 
nations so dark a blot in the page of our history ? 

Sir, shall no spot be held sacred by Americans ? Have 
we no reverence for the symbols of departed greatness ? 
True, there axe monuments at Bunker Hill and Baltimore 



PATRIOTIC AM) HEROIC ELOQUENCE. 157 

— we have here and there a national memento. The cu- 
rious can trace the crumbling ramparts, and the remains 
of hasty breastworks, behind which the stout hearts of 
our forefathers beat with patriotic zeal, and over which 
they dealt dismay and death to our enemies. But, sir, 
as we have been reminded by our governor, these memo- 
rials, like ourselves, are fast passing away. Let us, then, 
secure this honored patrimony. Let Mount Vernon be 
the perpetual memento of our country's great deliver- 
ance, and let the reverence with which it is regarded be 
the token of our gratitude. And when, in ages hence, 
the banks of the silvery Potomac shall resound, as now, 
with the passing vessel, uttering its tribute to the mem- 
ory of Washington, and the flag at the masthead shall 
humbly droop, and the mariner stand uncovered, in honor 
of the sacred spot; let future generations learn the lesson 
of. gratitude and patriotism, which these tokens shall 
daily excite at Mount Vernon. 



O Land of Happy Heakts and Homes. — William 
Allan Butler.* 

land of happy hearts and homes ! 

Land of the free ! 
O'er all the earth a welcome comes 

From kindred souls, to thee ! 
To thee, land of youth sublime, 
Bright jewel on the brow of Time ! 

land of liberty I 

Old Ocean clasps thee to his side, 

Land of the free ! 
And Nature weaves — beauteous bride ! — 

Her richest crown for thee. 

* Mr. Butler, a son of the late Hon. B. P. Butler, is most favorably known aa 
the author of "Nothing to Wear," and other huuiorons and satirical poems: this 
brilliant lyric gives him high rank as a serious poet— Ed. 



158 PATRIOTIC AND HEROIC ELOQUENCE. 

For thee, youthful queen of states, 
For thee, the darling of the Fates, 
land of liberty 1 

Thy glory brightens as it blooms — 

Land of the free I 
Starlike amidst the ancient glooms, 

It wins the world to thee ! 
To thee, promised land of rest, 
To thee, the Eden of the west ! 

land of liberty ! 

Far off the golden future gleams, 

Land of the free I 
■ "Whose larger light and brighter beams 

Shall flood the years for thee : 
For thee, land of long increase, 
For thee, the chosen shrine of peace, 

land of liberty! 

land of happy hearts and homes, 

Land of the free ! 
From grateful souls our greeting comes, 

Our song, our pledge to thee ! 
To thee, land of hope divine, 
Our joys, our loves, our lives are thine, 

land of liberty ! 



Adams and Jefferson. — Daniel Webster. 

Adams and Jefferson, I have said, are no more. As 
human beings, indeed, they are no more. They are no 
more, as in 1776, bold and fearless advocates of inde- 
pendence ; no more, as on subsequent periods, the head 
of the government ; no more, as we have recently seen 
them, aged and venerable objects of admiration and re- 
gard. They are no more. They are dead. 



PATRIOTIC AND HEROIC ELOQUENCE. 15U 

But how little is there of the great and good -which 
can die ! To their country they yet live, and live for- 
ever. They live in all that perpetuates the remembrance 
of men on earth ; in the recorded proofs of their own 
great actions, in the oifspring of their intellect, in the 
deep engraved lines of public gratitude, and in the re- 
spect and homage of mankind. They live in their exam- 
ple ; and they live emphatically, and will live, in the in- 
fluence which their lives and efforts, their principles and 
opinions, now exercise, and will continue to exercise, on 
the affairs of men, not only in their own country, but 
throughout the civilized world. 

A superior and commanding human intellect, a truly 
great man, when Heaven vouchsafes so rare a gift, is not 
a temporary flame, burning bright for a while, and then 
expiring, giving place to returning darkness. It is rather 
a spark of fervent heat, as well as radiant light, with 
power to enkindle the common mass of human mind ; so 
that, when it glimmers, in its own decay, and finally goes 
out in death, no night follows ; but it leaves the world 
all light, all on fire, from the potent contact of its own 
spirit. 

Bacon died, but the human understanding, roused 
by the touch of his miraculous wand to a perception 
of the true philosophy, and the just mode of inquir- 
ing after truth, has kept on its course, successfully and 
gloriously. Newton died ; yet the courses of the spheres 
are still known, and they yet move on, in the orbits 
which he saw, and described for them, in the infinity of 
space. 

No two men now live — perhaps it may be doubted 
whether any two men have ever lived in one age — who, 
more than those we now commemorate, have impressed 
their own sentiments, in regard to politics and govern- 
ment, on mankind, infused their own opinions more 
deeply into the opinions of others, or given a more last- 



160 PATRIOTIC AND HEROIC ELOQUENCE. 

ing direction to the current of human thought. Their 
work doth not perish with them. The tree which they 
assisted to plant will flourish, although they water it 
and protect it no longer; for it has struck its roots 
deep ; it has sent them to the very centre ; ' no storm, 
not of force to burst the orb, can overturn it ; its 
branches spread wide; they stretch their protecting 
arms broader and broader, and its top is destined to 
reach the heavens. 

We are not deceived. There is no delusion here. No 
age will come, in which the American revolution will ap- 
pear less than it is, one of the greatest events in human 
history. No age will come, in which it will cease to be 
seen and felt, on either continent, that a mighty step, a 
great advance, not only in American affairs, but in human 
affairs, was made on the 4th of July, 1776. And no age 
will come, we trust, so ignorant, or so unjust, as not to 
see and acknowledge the efficient agency of these we now 
honor, in producing that momentous event. 



The Tides. — William Cullen Bryant. 

The moon is at her full, and, riding high, 

Floods the calm fields with light, 
The airs that hover in the summer sky 

Are all asleep to-night. 

There comes no voice from the great woodlands round 

That murmured all the day ; 
Beneath the shadow of their boughs, the ground 

Is not more still than they. 

But ever heaves and moans the restless Deep ; 

His rising tides I hear; 
Afar I see the glimmering billows leap : 

I see them breaking near. 



PATRIOTIC AND HEROIC ELOQUENCE. 161 

Each wave springs upward, climbing toward the fair 

Pure light that sits en high ; — 
Springs eagerly, and faintly sinks to where 

The mother waters lie. 

Upward again it swells ; the moonbeams show, 

Again, its glimmering crest ; 
Again it feels the fatil weight below, 

And sinks, but not to rest. 

Again and yet again ; until the Deep 

Recalls his brood of waves ; 
And, with a sullen moan, abashed, they creep 

Back to his inner caves. 

Brief respite ! they shall rush from that recess 

"With noise and tumult soon, 
And fling themselves, with unavailing stress, 

Up toward the placid moon. 

Oh restless Sea, that in thy prison here 

Dost struggle and complain ; 
Through the slow centuries yearning to be near 

To that fair orb in vain, 

The glorious source of light and heat must warm 

Thy bosom with his glow, 
And on those mounting waves a nobler form 

And freer life bestow. 

Then only may they leave the watse of brine 

In which they welter here, 
And rise above the hills of earth and shine 

In a serener sphere. 



Eulogium on a Deceased Patriot. — Captain T. F. 
Meagher. 

With beautiful truth the first of English writers in 
the present century has observed, that, when death 
strikes down the young, the innocent and brave, for 



162 PATRIOTIC AND IIEKOIC ELOQUENCE. 

every fragile form from which it lets the parting spirit 
free, a hundred virtues rise, in shapes of mercy, charity, 
and love, to walk the world and bless it. What noble 
conversion of feeling upon this occasion have I not be- 
held ! I see regret where there have been aspersions — 
tears where there have been taunts — esteem avowed 
where disdain has been heretofore expressed. No, no ; 
there is not one hand — no, not even the hand clenched 
against him in his lifetime — there is not one hand that 
refuses to throw a fond memorial flower upon the grave 
of the young, the gallant, the generous enlightened pa- 
triot. But they who fought in the same ranks as he so 
bravely did; they who stood beside him, and saw the 
earnest service he did his country and his country's 
cause ; they in whose young hearts the appeals of his 
daring soul found quick and truthful echoes, were grieved 
indeed — grieved to the heart's most inmost depth, when, 
like some storm-gust, the news of his death swept swiftly 
by, and crushed the hopes they nourished for him. 

But it was so ordained, that in the morning of life he 
should pass away. He has been called away — called 
away from his labors and his hopes. He is no more — 
he is not here. His meteor genius has ceased to burn — 
his noble heart to beat. But there are thoughts of his, 
generous sentiments, liberal views, enlightened principles 
which death could not strike down. These shall dwell 
amongst us — these will we treasure up as fond memo- 
rials, as wakening spells. They will beckon us to the 
grave, bid us pluck a laurel from the nation's brow, and 
place it on his tomb. 



PATRIOTIC AND HEROIC ELOQUENCE. 163 



George Washington. — Charles W. Upham. 

Loxg before the war of the American revolution broke 
out, a leader was raised up and perfectly fitted for the 
great office. Among the mountain passes of the Blue 
Ridge and the Alleghanies, a youth is seen employed in 
the manly and invigorating occupations of a surveyor, 
and awakening the admiration of the hardy backwoods- 
men and savage chieftains by the strength and endurance 
of his frame, and the resolution and energy of his char- 
acter. In his stature and conformation he is a noble 
specimen of a man. In the various exercises of muscular 
power, on foot and in the saddle, he excels all competi- 
tors. His admirable physical traits are in perfect accord- 
ance with the properties of his mind and heart ; and over 
all, crowning all, is a beautiful, and, in one so young, a 
strange dignity of manners and of mien, a calm serious- 
ness, a sublime self-control, which at once compels the 
veneration, attracts the confidence, and secures the favor 
of all who behold him. That youth is the leader whom 
heaven is preparing to conduct America through her ap- 
proaching trial. 

As Ave see him voluntarily relinquishing the enjoy- 
ments, and luxuries, and ease, of the opulent refinement 
in which he was born and bred, and choosing the perils 
and hardships of the wilderness ; as we follow him, ford- 
ing swollen streams, climbing rugged mountains, breast- 
ing the forest storms, wading through snow-drifts, sleep- 
ing in the open air, living upon the coarse food of hunters 
and of Indians — we trace, with devout admiration, the 
divinely appointed education he was receiving to enable 
him to meet and endure the fatigues, exposures, and pri- 
vations, of the war of indejjendence. Soon he is called 
to a more public sphere of action, on the same theatre ; 
and aorain we follow him in his romantic adventures, as 



164 PATRIOTIC AND HEKOIC ELOQUENCE. 

he traversed the far-off western wilderness, a special mes- 
senger to the French commander on the Ohio, and after- 
ward when he led forth the troops of Virginia in the 
same direction, or accompanied the ill-starred Braddock 
to the blood-stained banks of the Monongahela. Every- 
where we see the hand of God conducting him into 
danger, that he might extract from it the wisdom of an 
experience not otherwise to be attained, and develop 
those heroic qualities by which alone danger and difficul- 
ty can be surmounted — but all the while covering him, 
as with a shield. 

When we think of him, at midnight and in midwinter, 
thrown from a frail raft into the deep and angry waters 
of a wide and rushing western river, thus separated from 
his only companion through the wilderness, with no hu- 
man aid for miles and leagues around him, buffeting its 
rapid current, and struggling through driving cakes of 
ice ; when we behold the stealthy savage, whose aim as 
against all other marks is unerring, pointing his rifle de- 
liberately at him, and firing over and over again ; when 
we see him riding through showers of bullets on Brad- 
dock's fatal field, and reflect that never, during his whole 
life, was he wounded or even touched by a hostile force 
— do we not feel that he was guarded by an unseen 
hand ? Yes, that sacred person was guarded by an un- 
seen hand, warding off every danger. No peril by flood 
or by field was permitted to extinguish a life consecrated 
to the hopes of humanity and to the purposes of heaven. 
His military preparation was completed by being intrust- 
ed with the defence of the frontiers of Virginia and the 
neighboring colonies — a command which, in the difficul- 
ties and embarrassments with which it was crowded, in 
its general character, and more especially in the wide- 
spread and incessant oversight, and forethought, and 
prudence, and patience it required, most remarkably re- 
sembled, was indeed a precise epitome of, the service he 



PATRIOTIC AND HEROIC ELOQUENCE. 165 

afterward discharged as commander-in-chief of the forces 
of United America. 

The warrior is now ready, but the statesman remains 
to be prepared. He accordingly resigned his commis- 
sion, and retired to private and civil life. Although not 
then quite twenty- seven years of age, he had Won a 
splendor of reputation and a completeness of experience, 
as a military man, such as had never before been ac- 
quired in America. For more than sixteen years he 
rested from his warfare, amid the shades of Mount Ver- 
non, ripening his mind by reading and reflection, increas- 
ing his knowledge of practical affairs, entering into the 
whole experience of a citizen, at home on his farm, and 
as a delegate to the colonial assembly; and when, at last, 
the war broke out, and the unanimous voice of the conti- 
nental congress invested him, as the exigency required, 
with almost unbounded authority, as their commander- 
in-chief, he blended, although still in the prime of his life 
— in the mature bloom of manhood — the attributes of a 
sage with those of a hero. 

A more perfectly fitted and furnished character has 
never appeared on the theatre of human action, than 
when, reining up his war-horse beneath the majestic and 
venerable elm, still standing at the entrance of the old 
Watertown road upon Cambridge Common, George 
Washington unsheathed his sword, and assumed the 
command of the gathering armies of American liberty. 
Those who had despaired, when they beheld their chief 
despaired no more. The very aspect of his person and 
countenance concurred with the history of his life in im- 
pressing their hearts with a deep conviction that God 
was with him, in the exercise of a peculiar guardianship, 
and that in his hands their cause was safe. 



166 patriotic and hekoic eloquence. 

Death of Gektktjde, and the Lament of Outalissi. 
— Thomas Camphcl 1 

Hushed were Ms Gertrude's lips ; but still their bland 

And beautiful expression seemed to melt 
"With love that could not die ; and still his hand 

She presses to the heart no more that felt. 
Ah heart ! where once each fond affection dwelt, 

And features yet that spoke a soul more fair. 
Mute, gazing, agonizing as he knelt — 
Of them that stood encircling his despair, 
He heard some friendly words, but knew not what they were. 

For now, to mourn their judge and child, arrives 

A faithful band. "With solemn rites between, 
'Twas sung, how they were lovely in their lives, 

And in their deaths had not divided been. 
Touched by the music, and the melting scene, 

"Was scarce one tearless eye amidst the crowd : 
Stern warriors, resting on their swords, were seen 
To veil their eyes, as passed each much-loved shroud — 
"While woman's softer soul in woe dissolved aloud. 

Then mournfully the parting bugle bid 

Its farewell, o'er the grave of worth and truth ; 
Prone to the dust, afflicted Waldegrave hid 

His face on earth ; — him watched, in gloomy ruth, 
His woodland guide ; but words had none to soothe 

The grief that knew not consolation's name ; 
Casting his Indian mantle o'er the youth, 
He watched, beneath its folds, each burst that came 
Convulsfve, ague-like, across his shuddering frame. 

"And I could weep," th' Oneyda chief 

His descant wildly thus begun, 
" But that I may not stain with grief 
The death-song of my father's son, 
Or bow this head in woe ; 
For by my wrongs, and by my wrath, 
To-morrow Areouski's breath 
(That fires yon heaven with storms of death) 
Shall light us to the foe ; 



PATRIOTIC AND HEROIC ELOQUENCE. 107 

And we shall share, my Christian boy, 
The foeman's blood, th' avenger's joy. 

" But thee, my flower, whose breath was given 

By milder genii o'er the deep, 
The spirits of the white man's heaven 

Forbid not thee to weep ; 

Nor will the Christian host, 
Nor will thy father's spirit, grieve 
To see thee, on the battle's eve, 
Lamenting, take a mournful leave 

Of her who loved thee most : 
She was the rainbow to thy sight — 
Thy sun — thy heaven of lost delight ! 

" To-morrow let us do or die I 

But when the bolt of death is hurled, 
Ah ! whither then with thee to fly, 
Shall Outalissi roam the world ? 

Seek we thy once-loved home ? 
The hand is gone that cropped its flowers ; 
Unheard their clock repeats its hours ; 
Cold is the hearth within their bowers ; 

And should we thither roam, 
Its echoes and its empty tread 
Would sound like voices from the dead. 

" Or shall we cross yon mountains blue, 
Whose streams my kindred nation quaffed, 

And by my side, in battle true, 

A thousand warriors drew the shaft I 
Ah ! there, in desolation cold, 

The desert serpent dwells alone, 

Where grass o'ergrows each mouldering bone, 

And stones themselves, to ruin growu, 
Like me are death-like old. 

Then seek we not their camp ; for there 

The silence dwells of my despair. 

"But hark, the trump I — to-morrow thou 

In glory's fires shalt dry thy tears 
Even from the land of shadows now 

My father's awful ghost appears, 

Amidst the clouds that round us roll: 



168 PATRIOTIC AND HEROIC ELOQUENCE. 

He bids my soul for battle thirst : 
He bids me dry the last — the first — 
The only tears that ever burst 
From Outalissi's soul ; 
Because I may not stain with grief 
The death-song of an Indian chief." 



Effects of a Dissolution of the Federal Union. — 

Alexander Hamilton. 

Assuming it, therefore, as an established truth, that, 
in case of disunion, the several states, or such combina- 
tions of them as might happen to be formed out of the 
wreck of the general confederacy, would be subject to 
those vicissitudes of peace and war, of friendship and 
enmity with each other, which have fallen to the lot of 
all other nations not united under one government, let 
us enter into a concise detail of some of the consequences 
that would attend such a situation. 

War between the states, in the first periods of their 
separate existence, would be accompanied with much 
greater distresses than it commonly is in those countries 
where regular military establishments have long obtained. 
The disciplined armies always kept on foot on the conti- 
nent of Europe, though they bear a malignant aspect to 
liberty and economy, have, notwithstanding, been pro- 
ductive of the singula^ advantage of rendering sudden 
conquests impracticable, and of preventing that rapid 
desolation, which used to mark the progress of war prior 
to their introduction. The art of fortification has con- 
tributed to the same ends. The nations of Europe are 
encircled with chains of fortified places, which mutually 
obstruct invasion. Campaigns are wasted in reducing 
two or three fortified garrisons, to gain admittance into 
an enemy's country. Similar impediments occur at every 



PATRIOTIC AND HEROIC ELOQUENCE; 169 

step, to exhaust the strength, and delay the progress, of 
an invader. Formerly, an invading army would pene- 
trate into the heart of a neighboring country almost as 
soon as intelligence of its approach could he received ; hut 
now, a comparatively small force of disciplined troops, 
acting on the defensive, with the aid of posts, is able to 
impede, and finally to frustrate, the purposes of one much 
more considerable. The history of war in that quarter 
of the globe is no longer a history of nations subdued, 
and empires overturned ; but of towns taken and retaken, 
of battles that decide nothing, of retreats more beneficial 
than victories, of much effort and little acquisition. 

In this country the scene would be altogether reversed. 
The jealousy of military establishments would postpone 
them as long as possible. The want of fortifications, 
leaving the frontier of one state open to another, would 
facilitate inroads. The populous states would with little 
difficulty overrun their less populous neighbors. Con- 
quests would be as easy to be made as difficult to be 
retained. War, therefore, would be desultory and pre- 
datory. Plunder and devastation ever march in the train 
of irregulars. The calamities of individuals would ever 
make the principal figure in events, and would charac- 
terize our exploits. 

This picture is not too highly wrought ; though, I con 
fess, it would not long remain a just one. Safety from 
external clanger is the most powerful director of national 
conduct. Even the ardent love of liberty will, after a 
time, give way to its dictates. The violent destruction 
of life and property incident to war, to continual effort 
and alarm attendant on a state of continual danger, wil 1 
compel nations the most attached to liberty to resort for 
repose and security to institutions which have a ten- 
dency to destroy their civil and political rights. To be 
more safe, they at length become willing to run the risk 
of being less free. The institutions chiefly alluded to are 
8 



1Y0 PATRIOTIC AND HEKOIC ELOQUENCE. 

standing armies, and the corresponding appendages of 
military establishments. Standing armies, it is said, are 
not provided against in the new constitution ; and it is 
thence inferred that they would exist under it. This 
inference, from the very form of the proposition, is, at 
best, problematical and uncertain. But standing armies, 
it may be replied, must inevitably result from a dissolu- 
tion of the confederacy. Frequent war and constant ap- 
prehension, which require a state of as constant prepara- 
tion, will infallibly produce them. The weaker states or 
confederacies would first have recourse to them, to put 
themselves on an equality with their more potent neigh- 
bors. They would endeavor to supply the inferiority of 
population and resources by a more regular and effective 
system of defence — by disciplined troops, and by fortifi- 
cations. They would, at the same time, be obliged to 
strengthen the executive arm of government ; in doing 
which their constitutions would require a progressive 
direction toward monarchy. It is the nature of war to 
increase the executive at the expense of the legislative 
authority. 

The expedients which have been mentioned, would 
soon give the states, or confederacies, that made use of 
them, a superiority over their neighbors. Small states, 
or states of less natural strength, under vigorous govern- 
ments, and with the assistance of disciplined armies, have 
often triumphed over large states, or states of greater 
natural strength, which have been destitute of these ad- 
vantages. Neither the pride nor the safety of the im- 
portant states, or confederacies, would permit them long 
to submit to this mortifying and adventitious superiority. 
They would quickly resort to means similar to those by 
which it had been effected, to reinstate themselves in 
their lost pre-eminence. Thus we should, in a little time, 
see established in every part of this country the same 
engines of despotism which have been the scourge of the 



PATRIOTIC AJS'D 1IEKOIC ELOQUENCE. 171 

old world. This, at least, would be the natural course 
of things ; and our reasonings Avill be likely to be just, in 
proportion as they are accommodated to this standard. 
These are not vague inferences, deduced from specula- 
tive defects in a constitution, the whole power of which 
is lodged in the hands of the people, or their represent- 
atives and delegates ; they are solid conclusions, drawn 
from the natural and necessary progress of human affairs. 
******* 

If we are wise enough to preserve the Union, we may 
for ages enjoy an advantage similar to that of an insu- 
lated situation. Europe is at a great distance from us. 
Her colonies in our vicinity will be likely to continue too 
much disproportioned in strength to be able to give us 
any dangerous annoyance. Extensive military establish- 
ments cannot, in this position, be necessary to our secu- 
rity. But, if we should be disunited, and the integral 
parts should either remain separated, or, which is most 
probable, should be thrown together into two or three 
confederacies, we should be, in a short course of time, in 
the predicament of the continental powers of Europe. 
Our liberties would be a prey to the means of defending 
ourselves against the ambition and jealousy of each other. 

This is an idea not superficial or futile, but solid and 
weighty. It deserves the most serious and mature con- 
sideration of every prudent and honest man, of whatever 
party. If such men will make a firm and solemn pause, 
and meditate dispassionately on its importance ; if they 
will contemplate it in all its attitudes, and trace it to all 
its consequences, they will not hesitate to part with trivial 
objections to a constitution, the rejection of which would, 
in all probability, put a final period to the Union. The 
airy phantoms, that now flit before the distempered im- 
aginations of some of its adversaries, would then quickly 
give place to more substantial prospects of dangers, real, 
certain, and extremely formidable. 



172 PATRIOTIC AND HEROIC ELOQUENCE. 



Freedom's Birth. — M. A. 



In that dark, gloomy night, 

Ere freedom's bright morn, 
When the strong hand of might 

Man's right laughed to scorn — 
Through battle and strife, 

Through blood and through death, 
Came a glorious life — 
'Twas liberty's birth ! 
Through the smoke of that conflict pervading the skies, 
Behold the day-star of liberty rise ! 

In the gathering gloom 

Of that perilous hour, 
When our fathers o'erturned 

The mad tyrant's power ; 
Through darkness and storm, 

By night and by day, 
The pure light of freedom 

Illumined the way : — 
'Twas then, Columbia, 'mid carnage and war, 
First dawned on the world thy bright natal starl 

On Lexington's sward, 

Down Bunker's steep side, 
From the breasts of the slain 

Ran the crimson life-tide ; 
Across Delaware's stream, 

Through bleak Valley Forge, 
Where blood marked their steps 

In that wild mountain gorge ; 
Still freedom's blest hope those heroes led on 
To battle and death, till triumph was won. 

On Camden's hot plains, 

By Brandywine's wave, 
The cohorts of foemen 

Found many a grave ; 
And Torktown's proud rampart 

In vain raised its side 



PATRIOTIC AND HEROIC ELOQUENCE. 173 

'Gainst the -wild rusliing surge 
Of liberty's tide ; 
In a halo of glory, o'er land and o'er sea, 
Now floats in glad triumph the flag of the free I 

From hill-top and mountain, 

From valley and plain, 
Ring glad shouts from millions 

For liberty's reign ; 
The forest and prairie, 

The ocean and stream, 
In the sunlight of freedom 
With new lustre gleam ; 
"While our bright starry banner, wherever unfurled, 
Is humanity's beacon — the hope of the world I 

Say, sons of the martyrs 

In freedom's cause slain, 
Shah the vilest of traitors 

This land rend in twain ? 
By the blood of those martyrs 

For you freely given ; 
By the prayers of the millions 

Ascending to heaven ; 
Go, kneel at the graves of your fathers, and swear 
That our flag shall still float in freedom's pure air I 



Reflections on the Battle of Lexington. — Hon. 
Edward Everett. 

It was one of those great days, one of those elemental 
occasions in the world's affairs, when the people rise and 
act for themselves. Some organization and preparation 
had been made ; but, from the nature of the case, with 
scarce any effect on the events of that day. It may be 
doubted, whether there was an efficient order given the 
whole day to any body of men as large as a regiment. 
It was the people, in their first capacity, as citizens and 
as freemen, starting from their beds at midnight, from 



174 PATRIOTIC AND HEROIC ELOQUENCE. 

their firesides and their fields, to take their own cause 
into their own hands. Such a spectacle is the height of 
the moral sublime ; when the want of every thing is fully 
made up by the spirit of the cause ; and the soul within 
stands in place of discipline, organization, resources. In 
the prodigious efforts of a veteran army, beneath the 
dazzling splendor of their array, there is something re- 
volting to the reflecting mind. The ranks are filled with 
the desperate, the mercenary, the depraved ; an iron 
slavery, by the name of subordination, merges the free 
will of one hundred thousand men in the unqualified 
despotism of one ; the humanity, mercy and remorse, 
which scarce ever desert the individual bosom, are sounds 
without a meaning to that fearful, ravenous, irrational 
monster of prey, a mercenary army. It is hard to say 
who are most to be commiserated, the wretched people 
on whom it is let loose, or the still more wretched people 
whose substance has been sucked out, to nourish it into 
strength aud fury. But in the efforts of the people, of 
the people struggling for their rights, moving not in or- 
ganized, disciplined masses, but in their spontaneous ac- 
tion, man for man, and heart for heart — though I like 
not war, nor any of its works — there is something glo- 
rious. They can then move forward without orders, act 
together without combination, and brave the flaming 
lines of battle, without intrenchments to cover, or walls 
to shield them. No dissolute camp has worn off from 
the feelings of the youthful soldier the freshness of that 
home, where his mother and his sisters sit waiting, with 
tearful eyes and aching hearts, to hear good news from 
the wars ; no long service in the ranks of the conqueror 
has turned the veteran's heart into marble ; their valor 
springs not from recklessness, from habit, from indiffer- 
ence to the preservation of a life, knit by no pledges to 
the life of others ; but in the strength and spirit of the 
cause alone they act, they contend, they bleed. In this 



PATRIOTIC AND HEROIC ELOQUENCE. 175 

they conquer. The people always conquer. They always 
must conquer. Armies may be defeated ; kings may be 
overthrown, and new dynasties imposed by foreign arms 
on an ignorant and slavish race, that care not in what 
language the covenant of their subjection runs, nor in 
whose name the deed of their barter and sale is made 
out. But the people never invade ; and, when they rise 
against the invader, are never subdued. If they are 
driven from the plains, they fly to the mountains. Steep 
rocks and everlasting hills are their castles ; the tangled, 
pathless thicket their palisado ; and nature — God — is 
their ally. Now he overwhelms the hosts of their ene- 
mies, beneath his drifting mountains of sand ; now he 
buries them beneath an atmosphere of falling snows ; he 
lets loose his tempests on their fleets ; he puts a folly 
into their counsels, a madness into the hearts of their 
leaders ; and he never gave, and never will give, a full 
and final triumph over a virtuous, gallant people, resolved 
to be free. 



Appeal in Favor of the Union. — James Madison. 

I submit to you, my fellow-citizens, these considera- 
tions, in full confidence that the good sense which has 
so often marked your decisions, will allow them their 
due weight and effect ; and that you will never suffer 
difficulties, however formidable in appearance, or how- 
ever fashionable the error on which they may be founded, 
to drive you into the gloomy and perilous scenes into 
which the advocates for disunion would conduct you. 
Hearken not to the unnatural voice, which tells you that 
the people of America, knit together as they are, by so 
many cords of affection, can no longer live together as 
members of the same family ; can no longer continue the 
mutual guardians of their mutual happiness ; can no Ion- 



lrfb PATRIOTIC AND HEKOIC ELOQUENCE. 

ger be fellow-citizens of one great, respectable and flour- 
ishing empire. Hearken not to the voice, which petu- 
lantly tells you, that the form of government recom- 
mended for your adoption is a novelty in the political 
world ; that it has never yet had a place in the theories 
of the wildest projectors ; that it rashly attempts what it 
is impossible to accomplish. No, my countrymen ; shut 
your ears against this unhallowed language. Shut your 
hearts against the poison which it conveys ; the kindred 
blood, which flows in the veins of American citizens, the 
mingled blood, which they have shed in defence of their 
sacred rights, consecrate their union, and excite horror 
at the idea of their becoming aliens, rivals, enemies. 
And if novelties are to be shunned, believe me, the most 
alarming of all novelties, the most wild of all projects, 
the most rash of all attempts, is that of rending us in 
pieces, in order to preserve our liberties and promote our 
happiness. But why is the experiment of an extended 
republic to be rejected, merely because it may comprise 
what is new ? Is it not the glory of the people of Amer- 
ica, that, whilst they have paid a decent regard to the 
opinions of former times and other nations, they have 
not suffered a blind veneration for antiquity, for custom, 
or for names, to overrule the suggestions of their own 
good sense, the knowledge of their own situation, and 
the lessons of their own experience ? To this manly 
spirit, posterity will be indebted for the possession, and 
the world for the example, of the numerous innovations 
displayed on the American theatre, in favor of private 
rights and public happiness. Had no important step 
been taken by the leaders of the revolution, for which a 
precedent could not be discovered ; had no government 
been established, of which an exact model did not pre- 
sent itself — the people of the United States might, at this 
moment, have been numbered among the melancholy vic- 
tims of misguided councils ; must at best have been la- 



PATRIOTIC AND HEROIC ELOQUENCE. 177 

boring under the weight of some of those forms which 
have crushed the liberties of the rest of mankind. Hap- 
pily for America, happily, we trust, for the whole human 
race, they pursued a new and more noble course. They 
accomplished a revolution which has no parallel in the 
annals of human society. They reared fabrics of govern- 
ment which have no model on the face of the globe. 
They formed the design of a great confederacy, which it 
is incumbent on their successors to improve and perpetu- 
ate. If their works betray imperfections, we wonder at 
the fewness of them. If they erred most in the structure 
of the Union, this was the work most difficult to be exe- 
cuted ; this is the work which has been new-modelled by 
the act of your convention, and it is that act on which 
you are now to deliberate and decide. 



In Memory of the heroic Captain Herndon, los'i 
tn the Wreck of the Central America. 

How soft the murmur of this breeze ! 

How deep the ocean's purple hue ! 
How goldenly over all the sun 

Beams in the quiet of the blue ! 
Ah ! who would dream that ought but bliss 
And peace could take a sea like this ? 

Tet but a few brief days ago, 

Death shuddered on the stormy wave, 

And Horror shrieked and clasped her hands, 
O'er ocean turning to a grave, 

Within whose everlasting deep 

Four hundred forms went down to sleep. 

ye so coldly resting here I 

Full many a heart your memory holds ; 

And many an eye is dim with grief 
In sorrow's pale and silent folds — 



178 PATRIOTIC AND HEROIC ELOQUENCE. 

But Herxdon, o'er thy glorious shroud 
See, a whole nation wails aloud ! 



Is it not glorious ? Honor leans 
As fondly o'er these burial seas 

As e'er she leaned in days of yore 
Above her own Miltiades : 

No fear with Herndon on the deck, 

The last wild crash, the sinking wreck. 

And now with all her banners furled, 
Thy nation in the shadow dim, 

Is chanting by the shrouding wave 
The sad words of a funeral hymn — 

What praises through the music swell, 

That hero-spirits love so well ! 

They tell of courage never quelled ; 

Of duty nobly, calmly done ; 
Of that dark, awful, lonely death ; 

Of everlasting glory won : 
And dearer still, a nation's love 
For him imparadised above. 

Defier of the wrathful wave ! 
Brave warrior with the mighty storm I 

Whenever floats the starry flag- 
Where silent lies thy gallant form, 

How shall its eagle be unfurled 

In broader grandeur to the world 1 

Then calmly slumber in the sea ! 

Ah, ours the mighty loss, not thine 
Whose high, heroic memory gleams 

Forevermore in glory's shrine ! — 
He wins a deatliless prize whose breath 
For man is gladly given to death. 



PATRIOTIC AND HEROIC ELOQUENCE. 179 



Character of Hamilton. — Fisher Ames. 

Men of the most elevated minds have not always the 
readiest discernment of character. Perhaps he was some- 
times too sudden and too lavish in bestowing his con- 
fidence : his manly spirit, disdaining artifice, suspected 
none. But, while the power of his friends over him 
seemed to have no limits, and really had none, in respect 
to those things which were of a nature to he yielded, no 
man, not the .Roman Cato himself, was more inflexible 
on every point that touched, or only seemed to touch, 
his integrity and honor. With him it was not enough 
to be unsuspected ; his bosom would have glowed like a 
furnace at its own whispers of reproach. Mere purity 
would have seemed to him below praise ; and such were 
his habits, and such his nature, that the pecuniary temp- 
tations, which many others can only with great exertion 
and self-denial resist, had no attractions for him. He 
was very far from obstinate ; yet as his friends assailed 
his opinions with less profound thought than he had de- 
voted to them, they were seldom shaken by discussion. 
He defended them, however, with as much mildness as 
force, and evinced that, if he did not yield, it was not for 
want of gentleness or modesty. 

His early life we pass over ; though his heroic spirit 
in the army has fuimished a theme that is dear to patriot- 
ism, and will be sacred to glory. 

In all the different stations in which a life of active 
usefulness has placed him, we find him not more remark- 
ably distinguished by the extent, than by the variety and 
versatility, of his talents. In every place, he made it 
apparent, that no other man could have filled it so 
well ; and in times of critical importance, in which 
alone he desired employment, his services were justly 
deemed absolutely indispensable. As secretary of the 



180 PATRIOTIC AND HEROIC ELOQUENCE. 

treasury, his was the powerful spirit that presided over 
the chaos. 

" Confusion heard his voice, and wild uproar 
Stood ruled." 

Indeed, in organizing the federal government in 1789, 
every man, of either sense or candor, will allow, the diffi- 
culties seemed greater than the first-rate abilities could 
surmount. The event has shown that his abilities were 
greater than those difficulties. He surmounted them; 
and Washington's administration was the most wise and 
beneficent, the most prosperous, and ought to be the 
most popular, that ever was intrusted with the affairs of 
a nation. Great as was Washington's merit, much of it 
in plan, much in execution, will of course devolve upon 
his minister. 

As a lawyer, his comprehensive genius reached the 
principles of his profession : he compassed its extent, he 
fathomed its profound, perhaps, even more familiarly and 
easily than the rules of its practice. With most men law 
is a trade ; with him it was a science. 

As a statesman, he was not more distinguished for the 
great extent of his views, than by the caution with which 
he provided against impediments, and the watchfulness 
of his care over the right and liberty of the subject. In 
none of the many revenue bills which he framed, though 
committees reported them, is there to be found a single 
clause which savors of despotic power ; not one that 
the sagest champions of law and liberty would, on that 
ground, hesitate to approve and adopt. 

It is rare that a man, who owes so much to nature, de- 
scends to seek more from industry ; but he seemed to de- 
pend on industry as if nature had done nothing for him. 
His habits of investigation were very remarkable; his 
mind seemed to cling to his subject till he had exhausted 
it. Hence the uncommon superiority of his reasoning 
powers — a superiority that seemed to be augmented from 



PATRIOTIC AND HEROIC ELOQUENCE. 1S1 

every source, and to be fortified by every auxiliary — 
learning, taste, wit, imagination and eloquence. These 
were embellished aud enforced by his temper and man- 
ners, by his fame and his virtues. It is difficult, in the 
midst of such various excellence, to say in what particular 
the effect of his greatness was most manifest. No man 
more promptly discerned truth ; no man more clearly 
displayed it : it was not merely made visible — it seemed 
to come bright with illumination from his lips. But, 
prompt and clear as he was — fervid as Demosthenes, 
like Cicero full of resource — he was not less remarkable 
for the copiousness and completeness of his argument, 
that left little for cavil, and nothing for doubt. Some 
men take their strongest argument as a weapon, and use 
no other ; but he left nothing to be inquired for — nothing 
to be answered. He not only disarmed his adversaries 
of their pretexts and objections, but he stripped them of 
all excuse for having urged them ; he confounded and 
subdued as well as convinced. He indemnified them, 
however, by making his discussion a complete map of 
his subject ; so that his opponents might, indeed, feel 
ashamed of their mistakes, but they could not repeat 
them. In fact it was no common effort that could pre- 
serve a really able antagonist from becoming his convert; 
for the truth, which his researches so distinctly presented 
to the understanding of others, was rendered almost 
irresistibly commanding and impressive by the love and 
reverence, which, it was ever apparent, he profoundly 
cherished for it in his own. While patriotism glowed 
in his heart, wisdom blended in his speech her authority 
with her charms. 

Unparalleled as were his services, they were never- 
theless no otherwise requited than by the applause of all 
good men, and by his own enjoyment of the spectacle of 
that national prosperity and honor, which was the effect 
of them. After facing calumny, and triumphantly sur- 



182 PATRIOTIC AND HEROIC ELOQUENCE. 

mounting an unrelenting persecution, he retired from 
office with clean though empty hands, as rich as reputa- 
tation and an unblemished integrity could make him. 

The most substantial glory of a country is in its virtu- 
ous great men : its prosperity will depend on its docility 
to learn from their example. That nation is fated to 
ignominy and servitude, for which such men have lived 
in vain. Power may be seized by a nation that is yet 
barbarous ; and Avealth may be enjoyed by one that it 
finds or renders sordid : the one is the gift and the sport 
of accident, and the other is the sport of power. Both 
are mutable, and have passed away without leaving be- 
hind them any other memorial than ruins that offend 
taste, and traditions that baffle conjecture. But the glory 
of Greece is imperishable, or will last as long as learning 
itself, which is its monument : it strikes an everlasting 
root, and bears perennial blossoms on its grave. The 
name of Hamilton would have honored Greece in the 
age of Ai-istides. May Heaven, the guardian of our lib- 
erty, grant that our country may be fruitful of Hamil- 
tons, and faithful to their glory ! 



The Cruel Case of Col. Pegram. — i\T. T. Tribune. 

Who is Pegram ? Colonel Pegram ? And this is fame ! 
Why, Pegram was a colonel of the rebel army in West- 
ern Virginia, and Pegram is a prisoner, made so, 
with his tent, epaulettes, sword and general military fur- 
niture, by General McClellan. " Well," asks the reader, 
" what is there extraordinary about that ? Are " not 
colonels of all varieties continually made " prisoners ? 
What is there peculiar about the " case of Pegram ?" 
Why, it is that among other military miscellanies in the 
pavilion of Pegram the conquering captors found the sav- 



PATRIOTIC AND HEROIC ELOQUENCE. 1S3 

agest, most truculent, gunpowdery, give-' era-fits procla- 
mation that ever was issued by any the most phosphores- 
cent general ; which, indeed, the reader will readily be- 
lieve, when we tell him that the said proclamation was 
the production of Ex-Governor and General Wise's red- 
hot pen. This sultry production, of which we have a 
copy, is singularly enough headed ; "To arms ! to 
amis !" though one cannot understand why " To legs ! 
to legs !" would not have been the kindlier exhortation. 
We have said that placard was produced by Wise the 
Wonderful ; but, perhaps, considering the thorough and 
innate modesty of that meek Moses of a man, we should 
revise our judgment ; for we find him spoken of in the 
body of the document as " the brave, chivalrous, and in- 
domitable General Henry A. Wise ;'" but then, at the 
bottom of the same, we find plainly printed : " By order 
of General Wise," so that we have here the Virginian hero 
and statesman " ordering" himself to be " proclaimed" 
at once "brave, chivalrous, and indomitable." This 
rather than else knocks into the shade of humility the ar- 
rogance of oriental monarchs ; and, we are afraid, after 
all, that our Henry is not the modest person that we sup- 
posed. Modest generals hardly ever blow their own 
trumpets after such & fortissimo fashion ; and great com- 
manders usually leave their " bravery," " chivalry," and 
" indomitability," to be discovered by the world, without 
putting them into the orders of the day, and employing 
a Pegram to puff them. Imagine the Duke of Welling- 
ton describing himself as " brave, chivalrous, and in- 
domitable !" Or imagine one of his aids doing it for 
him ! Would there not have been a row, riot, and rum- 
puss at head-quarters speedily ? 

But it is in the character of — what shall we say ? — 
thief? Well, thief is a hard word — suppose we say ab- 
stractor — abstractions have always been popular in Vir- 
ginia, and now Floyd has made them really fashionable 



1S4: PATRIOTIC AND HEROIC ELOQUENCE. 

— it is as an abstractor that General Wise shines. He who 
has no sword is advised in the Scriptures to buy one; 
but this new general says, by way of improvement, let 
him who has no sword "steal one !" Hear the brave, chiv- 
alrous, and indomitable ! " Gather," he says, or it is said 
by his " order," gather every thing in the shape of arms 
that may be converted into them, and paste the name of 
the person from whom they are taken upon them, that 
they may be valued ; bring all the powder, every flint, 
percussion-cap, &c." Floyd has evidently been giving 
Wise a course of six easy lessons in larceny; and won- 
derfully has the defender of the oyster-beds improved 
his precious opportunities. To be sure, he does not call 
the proposed confiscation stealing — he calls it " gathering" 
and " taking" — but if we had an uncommonly fine Joe 
Manton and a small store of ammunition for our private 
shooting, and Colonel Pegram should carry off the same, 
we should consider Pegram as a thief and Governor Wise 
as accessory before the fact. Such " gathering" is espe- 
cially stealing in Western Virginia, where so many of the 
inhabitants are loyally and honestly struggling against an 
oligarchical and military usurpation. Suppose they did 
paste our name upon the plunder ; which we do not be- 
lieve that they would take much trouble to do ; and sup- 
pose we did afterward go to Richmond for remuneration ! 
Go to Richmond for a halter ! Go to Richmond for tar 
and feathers ! Go to Richmond for further confiscations ! 
These might be secured without the smallest trouble ; 
but that they would be ready to pay Pegram's drafts for 
property "gathered" is what we are in no hurry to be- 
lieve. Stealing is altogether too constitutional in that 
state — it certainly is ! 

Having arranged these agreeable instructions to Pe- 
gram — they remind us of those which Fagin gave to Oli- 
ver Twist — General Wise, being done with business, takes 
to the religion of the occasion : " Be brave," he cries, 



PATRIOTIC AND HEROIC ELOQUENCE. 185 

" and fear not ! The God that made the mountains is the 

God of the lion-hearted and the brave." Very good ! very 
fine, indeed ! Only, like other fine things we have he ml 
before, it is egregious nonsense. Why is the God that 
made the mountains more the God of the lion-hearted 
and brave than the God that made the valley ? This is 
an interesting point in theology, and we want it settled. 
Moreover, we insist, for we should be very unwilling to 
believe otherwise — we insist that the God that made the 
mountains is also the God of cravens, lily-livered rene- 
gades and consummate knaves; and He has a way of 
showing it, as Pegram has already found to his cost — 
many of these miraculous mountaineers being now in 
limbo, with the prospect, if they receive justice, of mak- 
ing one more ascent — and one only ! 

Another flower from this parterre of a proclamation : 
" The land of Washington, Henry, Jefferson, and Madi- 
son is sacred — it must not, shall not, be desecrated." 
Now, here we agree fully with the ex-governor. Not 
desecrated — oh, no! — not by wicked rebellion and false- 
hood to law, and infidelity to the constitution ! But this 
is not what the unwise Wise means. He means, perhaps, 
that it is " desecration" to send Federal troops into Vir- 
ginia, and he says that this shall not be done. And Pe- 
gram, we suppose, all begirt as became a warrior, was 
reading this very sentence in his tent, and finding his 
anxious soul much solaced thereby, when along came the 
ruthless invader and disturbed Pegram's perusal. " He 
shall be expelled," said Pegram, and the next moment 
he was; — ah, well-a-day ! — Pegram was a prisoner ! This 
was, to use the language of the proclamation, " a barbar- 
ity and atrocity disgraceful to civilization." How Pegram 
must have tumbled from the seventh heaven of contem- 
plation ! Poor Pegram ! 



186 PATRIOTIC AND IIEltOIC ELOQUENCE. 

Extract from a Speech Delivered in the U. S. 
Senate, July 27, 1861. — Hon. Andrew Johnson. 

We ask the government to come to our aid. We love 
the constitution as made by our fathers. We have confi- 
dence in the integrity and capacity of the people to gov- 
ern themselves. We have lived entertaining these opin- 
ions ; we intend to die entertaining them. The battle 
has commenced. The president has placed it upon the 
true ground. It is an issue on the one hand for the peo- 
ple's government, and its overthrow on the other. We 
have commenced the battle of freedom. It is freedom's 
cause. We are resisting usurpation and oppression. We 
will triumph ; we must triumph. Right is with us. A 
great and fundamental principle of right, that lies at the 
foundation of all things, is with us. We may meet with 
impediments, and may meet with disasters, and here and 
there a defeat, but ultimately freedom's cause must tri- 
umph, for 

" Freedom's battle once begun, 
Bequeathed from bleeding sire to son, 
Though baffled oft, is ever won." 

Yes, we must triumph. Though sometimes I cannot 
see my way clear in matters of this kind, as in matters 
of religion, when my facts give out, when my reason 
fails me, I draw largely upon my faith. My faith is 
strong, based on the eternal principles of right, that a 
thing so monstrously wrong as this rebellion, cannot tri- 
umph. Can we submit to it ? Is the senate, are the 
American people, prepared to give up the graves of 
Washington and Jackson, to be encircled and governed 
and controlled by a combination of traitors and rebels ? 
I say let the battle go on — it is freedom's cause — until 
the stars and stripes (God bless them !) shall again be 
unfurled upon every cross-road, and from every house- 



PATRIOTIC AND HEROIC ELOQUENCE. 187 

top throughout the confederacy, north and south. Let 
the Union be reinstated; let the law be enforced; let 

the constitution be supreme. 

If the Congress of the United States were to give up 
the tombs of Washington and Jackson, we should have 
rising up in our midst another Peter the Hermit, in a 
much more righteous cause — for ours is true, while his 
was a delusion — who would appeal to the American peo- 
ple and point to the tombs of Washington and Jackson, 
in the possession of those who are worse than the infidel 
and the Turk who held the Holy Sepulchre. I believe 
the American people would start of their own accord, 
when appealed to, to redeem the graves of Washington 
and Jackson and Jefferson, and all the other patriots 
who are lying within the limits of the Southern Con- 
federacy. I do not believe they would stop the march, 
until again the flag of this Union would be placed over 
the graves of those distinguished men. There will be 
an uprising. Do not talk about Republicans now ; do 
not talk about Democrats now ; do not talk about Whigs 
or Americans now ; talk about your country and the con- 
stitution and the Union. Save that ; preserve the integ- 
rity of the government ; once more place it erect among 
the nations of the earth ; and then if we want to divide 
about questions that may arise in our midst, we have a 
government to divide in. 

I know it has been said that the object of this war is 
to make war on Southern institutions. I have been in 
free states and I have been in slave states, and I thank 
God that, so far as I have been, there has been one uni- 
versal disclaimer of any such purpose. It is a war upon 
no section ; it is a war upon no peculiar institution ; but 
it is a war for the integrity of the government, for the 
constitution and the supremacy of the laws. That is 
what the nation understands by it. 

The people whom I represent appeal to the govern- 



188 PATRIOTIC AND HEROIC ELOQUENCE. 

merit and to the nation to give us the constitutional pro- 
tection that we need. I am proud to say that I have 
met with every manifestation of that kind in the senate, 
with only a few dissenting voices. I am proud to say, 
too, that I believe old Kentucky, God bless her! will 
ultimately rise and shake off the stupor which has been 
resting upon her ; and instead of denying us the privi- 
lege of passing through her borders, and taking arms 
and munitions of war to enable a downtrodden people 
to defend themselves, will not only give us that privi- 
lege, but will join us and help us in the work. The peo- 
ple of Kentucky love the Union ; they love the constitu- 
tion ; they have no fault to find with it ; but in that 
state they have a duplicate to the governor of ours. 
When we look all around, we see how the governors of 
the different states have been involved in this conspiracy 
— the most stupendous and gigantic conspiracy that was 
ever formed, and as con*upt and as foul as that attempted 
by Catiline in the days of Rome. We know it to be so. 
Have we not known men to sit at their desks in this 
chamber, using the government's stationery to write 
treasonable letters ; and while receiving their pay, sworn 
to support the constitution and sustain the law, engaging 
in midnight conclaves to devise ways and means by 
w'hich the government and the constitution should be 
overthrown ? The charge was made and published in 
the papers. Many things we know that we cannot put 
our finger upon ; but we know from the regular steps 
that w r ere taken in this work of breaking up the govern- 
ment, or trying to break it up, that there was system, 
concert of action. It is a scheme more corrupt than the 
assassination planned and conducted by Catiline in refer- 
ence to the Roman senate. The time has arrived when 
we should show to the nations of the earth that we are 
a nation capable of preserving our existence, and give 
them evidence that we will do it. 



PATRIOTIC AND HEKOIC ELOQUENCE. 189 

I have already detained the senate much longer than 
I intended when I rose, and I shall conclude in a few 
words more. Although the government has met with a 
little reverse within a short distance of this city, no one 
should be discouraged and no heart should be dismayed. 
It ought only to prove the necessity of bringing forth 
and exerting still more vigorously the power of the gov- 
ernment in maintenance of the constitution and the laws. 
Let the energies of the government be redoubled, and 
let it go on with this war — not a war upon sections, not 
a war upon peculiar institutions anywhere ; but let the 
constitution and the Union be its frontispiece, and the 
supremacy and enforcement of the laws its watchword. 
Then it can, it will, go on triumphantly. We must suc- 
ceed. This government must not, cannot fall. Though 
your flag may have trailed in the dust ; though a retro- 
grade movement may have been made ; though the ban- 
ner of our country may have been sullied, let it still be 
borne onward ; and if, for the prosecution of this war in 
behalf of the government and the constitution, it is neces- 
sary to cleanse and purify the banner, I say let it be bap- 
tized in fire from the sun and bathed in a nation's blood ! 
The nation must be redeemed ; it must be triumphant. 
The constitution — which is based upon principles im- 
mutable, and upon which rest the rights of man and 
the hopes and expectations of those who love freedom 
throughout the civilized world — must be maintained. 



Freedom of the Ancient Israelites. — Rev. Dr. 
Oroly. 

The state of man in the most unfettered republics of 
the ancient world was slavery, compared with the mag- 
nanimous and secure establishment of the Jewish com- 
monwealth. During the three hundred golden years 



190 PATRIOTIC AND HEROIC ELOQUENCE. 

from Moses to Samuel — before, for our sins, we were 
given over to the madness of innovation and the demand 
of an earthly diadem — the Jew was free, in the loftiest 
sense of freedom ; free to do all good ; restricted only 
from evil ; every man pursuing the unobstructed course 
pointed out by his genius or his fortune ; every man pro- 
tected by laws inviolable, or whose violation was instant- 
ly visited with punishment, by the Eternal Sovereign 
alike of ruler and people. 

Freedom ! twin-sister of virtue, thou brightest of all 
the spirits that descended in the train of religion from 
the throne of God ; thou, that leadest up man again to 
the early glories of his being ; angel, from the circle of 
whose presence happiness spreads like the sunlight over 
the darkness of the land ! at the waving of whose scep- 
tre, knowledge and peace and fortitude and wisdom, 
stoop upon the wing ; at the voice of whose trumpet the 
more than grave is broken, and slavery gives up her 
dead ; when shall I see thy coming ? When shall I hear 
thy summons upon the mountains of my country, aud re- 
joice in the regeneration and glory of the sons of Judah! 

I have traversed nations ; and as I set my foot upon 
their boundary, I have said, freedom is not here ! I saw 
the naked hill, the morass steaming with death, the field 
covered with weedy fallow, the silky thicket encumber- 
ing the land ; I saw the still more infallible signs, the 
downcast visage, the form degraded at once by loath- 
some indolence and desperate poverty; the peasant cheer- 
less and feeble in his field, the wolfish robber, the popu- 
lation of the cities crowded into huts and cells, with pes- 
tilence for their fellow ; I saw the contumely of man to 
man, the furious vindictiveness of popular rage ; and I 
pronounced at the moment, this people is not free. 

In the republics of heathen antiquity, the helot, the 
client sold for the extortion of the patron, and the born 
bondmen lingering out life in thankless toil, at once put 



PATRIOTIC AND HEROIC ELOQUENCE. 191 

to flight all conceptions of freedom. In the midst of 
altars fuming to liberty, of harangues glowing with the 
most pompous protestations of scorn for servitude, of 
crowds inflated with the presumption that they disdained 
a master, the eye was insulted with the perpetual chain. 
The temple of liberty Avas built upon the dungeon. Rome 
came, and unconsciously avenged the insulted name of 
freedom; the master and the slave were bowed together; 
the dungeon was made the common dwelling of all. 



Resistance to Tyranny. — Patrick Henry. 

Mr. President : It is natural for man to indulge in 
the illusions of hope. We are apt to shut our eyes 
against a painful truth, and listen to the song of that 
siren till she transforms us into beasts. Is this the part 
of- wise men, engaged in a great and arduous struggle 
for liberty ? Are we disposed to be of the number of 
those, who, having eyes, see not, and having ears, hear 
not, the things which so nearly concern their temporal 
salvation ? For my part, whatever anguish of spirit it 
may cost, I am willing to know the whole truth ; to know 
the worst, and to provide for it. 

I have but one lamp, by which my feet are guided ; 
and that is the lamp of experience. I know of no way 
of judging of the future but by the past. And, judging 
by the past, I wish to know what there has been in the 
conduct of the British ministry, for the last ten years, 
to justify those hopes with which gentlemen have been 
pleased to solace themselves and the house. Is it that 
insidious smile, with which our petition has been lately 
received ? Trust it not, sir ; it will prove a snare to 
your feet. Suffer not yourselves to be betrayed with a 
kiss. Ask yourselves how this gracious reception of our 



VJ2 PATRIOTIC AND'HEKOIC ELOQUENCE. 

petition comports with those warlike preparations, which 
cover our waters and darken our land. Are fleets and 
armies necessary to a work of love and reconciliation ? 
Have we shown ourselves so unwilling to be reconciled, 
that force must be called in to win back our love ? Let 
us not deceive ourselves, sir. These are the implements 
of war and subjugation — the last arguments to which 
kings resort. I ask gentlemen, sir, what means this mar- 
tial array, if its purpose be not to force us to submission? 
Can gentlemen assign any other possible motive for it ? 
Has Great Britain any enemy, in this quarter of the 
world, to call for all this accumulation of navies and 
arniies ? No, sir, she has none. They are meant for us : 
they can be meant for no othei - . They are sent over to 
bind and rivet upon us those chains which the British 
ministry have been so long forging. And what have we 
to oppose to them ? Shall we try argument ? Sir, we 
have been trying that for the last ten years. Have we 
any thing new to offer upon the subject ? Nothing. We 
have held the subject up in every light of which it is 
capable ; but it has been all in vain. Shall we resort to 
entreaty and humble supplication ? What terms shall 
we find which have not been already exhausted ? Let 
us not, I beseech you, sir, deceive ourselves longer. Sir, 
we have done every thing that could be done to avert the 
storm which is now coming on. We have petitioned ; 
we have remonstrated ; we have supplicated ; we have 
prostrated ourselves before the throne, and have implored 
its interposition to arrest the tyrannical hands of the 
ministry and parliament. Our petitions have been slight- 
ed; our remonstrances have produced additional violence 
and insult ; our supplications have been disregarded ; 
and we have been spurned, with contempt, from the 
foot of the throne. In vain, after these things, may we 
indulge the fond hope of peace and reconciliation. There 
is no longer any room for hope. If we wish to be free ; 



PATRIOTIC ASD HEROIC ELOQUENCE. 193 

if we mean to preserve inviolate those inestimable privi- 
leges for which we have heen so long contending; if we 
mean not basely to abandon the noble struggle in which 
we have been so long engaged, and which we have 
pledged ourselves never to abandon until the glorious 
object of our contest shall be obtained — we must tight ! 
1 repeat it, sir, we must fight ! An appeal to arms, and 
to the God of hosts, is all that is left us. They tell us, 
sir, that we are weak — unable to cope with so formidable 
;ni adversary. But when shall we be stronger ? Will 
it be the next week, or the next year ? Will it be when 
we are totally disarmed, and when a British guard shall 
be stationed in every house ? Shall we gather strength 
by irresolution and inaction ? Shall we acquire the means 
of effectual resistance by lying supinely on our backs, 
and hugging the delusive phantom of hope, until our 
enemies shall have bound us hand and foot ? Sir, we 
are not weak, if we make a proper use of those means 
which the God of nature hath placed in our power. 
Three millions of people, armed in the holy cause of 
liberty, and in such a country as that which we possess, 
are invincible by any force which our enemy can send 
against us. Besides, sir, we shall not fight our battles 
alone. There is a just God, who presides over the des- 
tinies of nations, and who will raise up friends to fight 
our battles for us. The battle, sir, is not to the strong 
alone ; it is to the vigilant, the active, the brave. Be- 
sides, sir, we have no election. If we were base enough 
to desire it, it is now too late to retire from the contest. 
There is no retreat, but in submission and slavery ! Our 
chains are forged. Their clanking may be heard on the 
plains of Boston ! The war is inevitable — and let it 
come ! — I repeat it, sir, let it come ! 

It is vain, sir, to extenuate the matter. Gentlemen 
may cry, peace, peace — but there is no peace. The war 
is actually begun ! 



194 PATRIOTIC AND HEROIC ELOQUENCE. 

The next gale that sweeps from the north will bring 
to our ears the clash of resounding arms ! Our brethren 
are already in the field ! Why stand we here idle? What 
is it that gentlemen wish ? What would they have ? Is 
life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the 
price of chains and slavery ? Forbid it, Almighty God. 
I know not what course others may take ; but, as for me, 
give me liberty or give me death ! 



The Liberty Bell." — William Ross Wallace. 

DEDICATED TO ROYAL PHELPS, ESQ. 

A sound like the sound of a tempest rolled, 

And the heart of a people stirred, 
For the bell of freedom at midnight tolled, 
Through a fettered land was heard : 

And the cliime still rung 

From its iron tongue, 
Steadily swaying to and fro ; 

And to some it came 

As a breath of flame, 
And to some as a sound of woe. 

Upon the tall mountain, upon the tost wave, 
It was heard by the fettered, and heard by the brave ; 
It was heard in the cottage, and heard in the hall, 
And its chime gave a glorious summons to all. 
The old sabre was sharpened, the time-rusted blade 
Of the bond started out in the pioneer's glade, 
Like a herald of wrath — and the host was arrayed 1 

Along the tall mountain, along the tost wave, 

Swept the ranks of the bond, swept the ranks of the brave ; 

* Rung, in Philadelphia, at the. Declaration of Independence. This lyric is 
from a manuscript national poem. Mr. Gregory will soon issue the lyric in the 
splendid illustrated style of the "Star Spangled Banner" and Drake's "American 
Flag." 



PATRIOTIC AND HEROIC ELOQUENCE. 19i 

And a shout as of waters went up to the dome, 

And a sun-drinking banner unfurled, 
Like an archangel's pinion flashed out from his home, 

Uttered freedom and hope to the world. 
O'er the mountain and tide its magnificent fold, 
With a terrible glitter of azure and gold, 
In the storm and the sunshine forever unrolled. 
It blazed in the valley ; it bifezed on the mast ; 
It flew like a comrade abroad with the blast ; 
And the eyes of whole nations were turned to its light ; 

And the hearts of the multitude soon 
Were swayed by its stars as they shone through the night, 

Like an ocean when swayed by the moon. 

Again through the midnight that bell thunders out : 

And banners and torches are hurried about. 

A shout as of waters, a long-uttered cry 1 

How it leaps, how it leaps from the earth to the sky ! 

From the sky to the earth, from the earth to the sea, 

Hear the chorus re-echoed, " The people are free!" 

That old bell is still seen by the patriot's eye, 

And he blesses it ever when journeying by : 

Long years have passed over it, and yet every soul 

Must thrill in the night to its deep, solemn roll ; 

For it speaks in its belfry when kissed by the blast, 

Like a broad blessing breathed from the lips of the Past. 

Long years will roll o'er it, and yet every chime 

Must unceasingly tell of an era sublime, 

And more splendid, more dear than the rest of all Time. 

yes 1 if the flame on our altars should pale, 
Let its voice but be heard, and the freeman will start 

To rekindle the fire, while he sees on the gale 
All the stars, all the stripes of the flag of his heart 



196 patriotic and hekoic eloquence. 

The Solemn Duty of the United States Govern- 
ment. — The Louisville {Ey.) Journal. 

The present unhappy war was begun by the South, 
begun for the sake of disunion, and was accepted and 
is carried on by the United*States for the sake of the 
Union — and not, we hope, in vain. We know from the 
testimony of numerous southern men, who dare not speak 
aloud in their own homes, that there are multitudes of 
men hi the South who are at heart for the Union, who, in 
their secret souls, are praying to the United States for de- 
liverance almost as they pray to heaven for salvation, and 
who, if ever the power of the United States shall relieve 
them from the thraldom that now crushes their politi- 
cal lives out of them, will be able to assert and maintain 
a supremacy in their respective states. We have not an 
earthly doubt that there is a majority of states whose 
people, though now apparently unanimous for southern 
independence, would, if the deadly weight of a relentless 
despotism were lifted from their minds, hail the restora- 
tion of the Union as the ironed prisoner of a dungeon 
hails the return of God's blessed sunshine, and would 
greet with exultation even the little privilege of giving 
free exjoression to their opinions. 

The present positions of several of the southern states 
were never chosen and have never been indorsed by the 
citizens of those states. Secession ordinances were passed 
by legislatures never elected or authorized to act upon 
the subject ; such legislatures placed all the military and 
pecuniary resources of their states at the disposal of the 
southern government, and invited the confederate armies 
to an immediate occupation of their territory ; and, after 
doing all this, they granted to their enslaved and mana- 
cled people the empty and miserable mockery of the privi- 
lege of deciding whether their states should or should 



PATRIOTIC AND HEROIC ELOQUENCE. 197 

not go into the Southern Confederacy. Of course, where 
lla j people would gladly have shouted "no" by tens of 
thousands, scarcely a solitary " no" was heard. The 
states, transferred by such monstrous and heaven-defying 
fraud and violence to the Southern Confederacy, are now 
subject to its tyrannical laws and requisitions, and their 
people, who have never been allowed to have a free voice 
in the fixing of their own destinies, are looking for free- 
dom to a power outside of the dominion of the deadly 
tyranny under which they draw their breaths. It would 
be a fearful thing that the loyal millions in the Con- 
federate States should be permanently abandoned by the 
United States to the miserable doom, to which, through 
no fault of their own, they have been subjected. Our 
trust, our conviction is, that, if the mighty armies of the 
republic, defied as they have been to strife, shall plant 
the standards of the United States at enough points to 
guarantee perfect freedom of thought and word and deed 
to the whole South, a large majority of the people of 
many, if not all, of the seceding states will declare their 
loyalty in a thunder-burst of joyous enthusiasm. 

The policy of accepting peace on the condition of re- 
cognizing the independence of the Southern Confederacy 
would be a terrible one. Nay, it would be a policy that 
we but feebly characterize by the word terrible. It 
would be the death, the everlasting death, of the great 
and glorious hope that now lh r es in the hearts of tens of 
millions upon this continent and hundreds of millions 
throughout the civilized world. It would be the de- 
struction of the mightiest work that the spirit of freedom 
has ever done upon the earth. What has been the ad- 
miration and the wonder of the nations would be their 
pity and their scorn. Let no one delude himself with 
the thought or fancy that a government, a nation, has 
not a right to defend itself, by all the powers and ener- 
gies at its command, against disruption and dissolution. 



198 



PATRIOTIC AND HEROIC ELOQUENCE. 



To do this is, as a general truth, among a nation's most 
sacred rights and its highest and most solemn duties. 
The nation that should not recognize and assert the right 
and the duty would be the object of all mankind's con 
tempt. Surely no human being supposes that England 
or France or Spain or Austria or Russia, if a portion, 
even a majority, of a section of either of those kingdoms 
or empires should assert the right of erecting their sec- 
tion into an independent realm, would permit the right 
thus claimed to be practically asserted. It is absurd to 
suppose that either of them, upon any claim of a portion 
of their people to the right of self-government, would 
submit to dismemberment, submit to be divided into 
two kingdoms or empires. Sooner would they wage a 
war of centuries, a war, as they would justly consider it, 
of national life or death. 

To submit to the separation of the United States into 
two independent powers, would not only be the most 
fatal example that we could set for the existing genera- 
tion of men, and to all generations that are to come after 
us, but would render the whole area of the thirty-four 
states one of the feeblest and most wretched portions of 
the civilized world. All our old glory would be turned 
to midnight darkness. The two republics or two mon- 
archies, supposing that to be the number into which our 
country should at first be divided, could never remain for 
even one year at peace. A thousand causes would render 
collisions and wars between them inevitable. Neither 
of the two could have the least security against its own 
disintegration and dissolution. The United States gov- 
ernment at Washington, having established the prece- 
dent of permitting eleven or twelve or fifteen states to 
go off at pleasure, could not restrain other states from 
doing the same thing. Each and every state remaining 
even temporarily in the United States would feel that it 
had the power to assert and maintain its right of either 



PATRIOTIC AND HEROIC ELOQUENCE. 199 

seceding into the Southern Confederacy, or of establish- 
ing, together with such other states as it might be able 
to carry with it, an independent sovereignty, and it 
would exercise this fancied right whenever, for any cause, 
frivolous or otherwise, it should become dissatisfied with 
the acts of the government of its section. What is now 
the United States, as distinguished from the Confederate 
States, would almost certainly, within half a dozen years, 
consist of half a dozen petty and jarring powers, with no 
common head. 

The same or even worse would be the condition of the 
states of the Southern Confederacy, based, as that con- 
federacy avowedly is, and would be, upon the assump- 
tion, as a fundamental principle of government, that every 
state, or every two or three states, must ever be recog- 
nized as having the right to establish an independent 
government or independent governments at will. There 
would be no government in either section fit to be called 
one. Our country, that we have been so proud of, would 
be in a worse condition than the miserable little repub- 
lics of South America. No pretended sovereignty, north 
or south, could ever obtain from abroad a loan of even 
the most inconsiderable amount, for European nations 
would scorn to intrust their money to governments not 
even claiming to embody any principle of self-preserva- 
tion. The powers which have not dared to provoke the 
warlike energies of earth's great republic would deride 
us in our helplessness, and, by the presence of even a 
single man-of-war, compel us to yield obedience to their 
haughty and tyrannical dictation. Horrible servile insur- 
rections would break out everywhere in the slaveholding 
region, making fields and firesides desolate. 

Masses of slaves, first from the slave states nearest to 
the free states, and afterward from those more remote, 
would escape — some by stealth and others openly — till 
the last vestige of slavery would disappear. All the 



200 PATRIOTIC AND HEROIC ELOQUENCE. 

petty powers, jealous and hostile, would have to keep 
standing armies, vast in proportion to the means of sup- 
porting them, and the consequent taxes would impover- 
ish the people to the point of hopeless and irretrievable 
ruin. Hundreds and thousands of desperate men, accus- 
tomed to blood and violence, and having no means of 
honest subsistence for themselves and families, would 
organize gangs of banditti, such as for years have infested 
Mexico. But this condition of anarchy or half-anarchy 
could not last forever, or even very long. From the 
midst of all the confusion and lawlessness and strife, some 
bold master-spirit would spring up, and, rallying thou- 
sands to his standard, pursue his conquering and devas- 
tating inarch until the whole of what has been the United 
States, would be made a bloody and relentless despotism, 
as drear and remorseless as any one recorded in history. 
And now the question is, whether the United States, 
through a dread of the inconveniences and even the great 
sufferings and sacrifices of the war that is upon us, ought 
to accept this condition of things for the sake of a brief, 
a hollow, a nominal peace. To our minds it would be 
a dreadful crime against God and the human race. It 
would mark the present generation of the people of this 
country as the guiltiest enemies and murderers of free- 
dom in all the history of the world. Our glorious old 
fathers of '76 bequeathed not more to us than to the 
generation that are to come hereafter — their posterity as 
well as ours-— the great and magnificent inheritance of 
the Union. Our fathers of later periods received, guard- 
ed, transmitted, the sacred, the magnificent bequest to 
us, to be in turn passed down by us to those for whom, 
as for ourselves, the patriots who won it by their blood 
ordained it. And now should we, can we, dare we, in 
the face of heaven and earth, stop the awful bequest in 
its descent, shiver it into worthless fragments, destroy 
that which is not our own but mankind's for this and 



rATRIOTIC AND HEROIC ELOQUENCE. 201 

the coming ages, defraud posterity of the richest blessing 
ordained for them by the sainted and illustrious dead of 
a dead century, swindle all the human race of this and 
all the future time of what myriads of millions have con- 
templated with gratitude and adoration as the mightiest 
boon of God to his creatures, and leave our names to 
creak and blacken on the gibbet of infamy as the names 
of men who cursed their race, and shall be cursed by it 
as long as there shall be an atmosphere to bear the sound 
of a curse upon its bosom ! 



Who is Eesponsible for the Slavery Agitation ? 

There are many honest people who honestly believe 
that the North is responsible for the slavery agitation ; 
and that to Mr. Seward the country is indebted for the 
irrepressible conflict idea ; and that the destruction of 
our soxithern trade, and the perilous state of the country, 
is all owing to northern fanatics ; but our political his- 
tory does not sustain these honest people in their 
views. 

The cunning men in the South, who have for years 
labored to dissolve the Union, seized upon the slavery 
question as one on which the southern people were most 
sensitive, and as best calculated to arouse them to action. 
Davis, of Massachusetts, remarked in 1833, "that the 
root of South Carolina's discontent lay deeper than the 
tariff." Her political economists reasoned that as Charles- 
ton had a larger commerce than New York before the 
adoption of the constitution, and since that time the com- 
merce of New York had grown to be considerably larger 
than that of Charleston, hence Charleston had suifered 
for the benefit of New York, and the remedy for this 
was dissolution of the Union — and when they found the 
9* 



202 PATRIOTIC AND HEKOIC ELOQUENCE. 

tariff would not unite the southern people, they took 
hold of the slavery question. 

In 1833, Madison writing to Clay; said: "It is pain- 
ful to see the unceasing efforts to alarm the South by 
imputations against the North, of unconstitutional de- 
signs on the subject of slavery. You are right, I have 
no doubt, in believing that no such intermeddling dis- 
position exists in the body of our Northern brethren. 
Their good faith is sufficiently guaranteed by the interest 
they have as merchants, as ship-owners, and as manu- 
facturers, in preserving a union with the slaveholding 
states. On the other hand what madness in the South 
to look for greater safety in disunion. It would be worse 
than jumping into the fire for fear of the frying-pan. The 
danger from the alarm is, that the pride and resentment 
exerted by them may be an overmatch for the dictates 
of prudence, and favor the projects of a southern conven- 
tion, insidiously revived, as promising by its councils the 
best securities against grievances of every sort from the 
North." 

Benton said that " From the beginning of the Missouri 
controversy up to the year 1835, he looked to the North 
as the point of danger from the slaveiy agitation. Since 
that time he has looked to the South for that danger, as 
Mr. Madison did two years earlier." 

The idea of an irrepressible conflict existing between 
the interest of the slave and the free states was set forth 
by Calhoun, in his speech in the senate on the nullifica- 
tion resolutions in 1833. He said : "The contest (be- 
tween the North and the South) will in fact be a contest 
between power and liberty, and such he considered the 
present ; a contest in which the weaker section, with its 
peculiar labor, productions and situation, has at stake all 
that is dear to freemen." 

In commenting on the above, Benton said : " Here is 
a distinct declaration that there was then a contest be- 



PATRIOTIC AND HEROIC ELOQUENCE. 203 

tween the two sections of the Union, and that that con- 
test was between power and liberty, in which the free- 
dom and the slave property of the South were at stake. 
This declaration at the time attracted but little attention, 
there being then no sign of a slavery agitation, but to 
close observers it was an ominous revelation of something 
to come, and an apparent laying an anchor to windward 
for a new agitation on a new subject, after the tariff was 
done with." 

The disunionists have for thirty years been determined 
to bring about the present state of affairs, and they took 
hold of the slavery agitation, deeming it the quickest 
mode of accomplishing their object. They seized upon 
every thing calculated to inflame the southern mind, but 
at the same time endeavoring to throw the responsibility 
of their agitation on the North, in hopes of creating dis- 
sension here and forming a party in their favor when the 
time for action arrived. The fact of the present presi- 
dent and vice-president both coming from the free states, 
was a great argument with them ; they entirely overlook- 
ing the fact that Jackson and Calhoun both came from 
slave states, and both being natives of South Carolina. 
Yet this was no cause for alarm or agitation among the 
northern people. 



TRUTn and Freedom. — Wm. D. Gallagher. 

On the page that is immortal, 

We the brilliant promise see : 
" Ye shall know the truth, my people, 

And its might shall make you freel" 

For the truth, then, let us battle, 

"Whatsoever fate betide 1 
Long the boast that we are freemen, 

We have made, and published wide. 



204 PATRIOTIC AND HEROIC ELOQUENCE. 

He who has the truth, and keeps it, 
Keeps what not to Mm belongs ; 

But performs a selfish action, 
That his fellow mortal wrongs. 

He who seeks the truth, and trembles 
At the dangers he must brave, 

Is not fit to be a freeman : 
He, at best, is but a slave. 

He who hears the truth, and places 
Its high promptings under ban, 

Loud may boast of all that's manly, 
But can never be a man. 

Friend, this simple lay who readest, 
Be not thou like either them — 

But to truth give utmost freedom, 
And the tide it raises, stem. 

Bold in speech, and bold in action, 
Be forever I Time will test, 

Of the free-souled and the slavish, 
Which fulfils life's mission best. 

Be thou like the noble Ancient — 
Scorn the threat that bids thee fear ; 

Speak ! — no matter what betide thee ; 
Let them strike, but make them hear 1 



Be thou like the first i 

Be thou like heroic Paul ; 
If a free thought seek expression, 
it boldly ! speak it all 1 



Face thine enemies — accusers ; 

Scorn the prison, rack, or rod ! 
And if thou hast truth to utter, 

Speak ! and leave the rest to God. 






patriotic and heroic eloquence. 205 

George Wilkes's Description of the Battle of Bull 
Ren. — New York Ledger* 

The following extract from one of George "Wilkes's 
letters to his Spirit of the Times, gives a vivid picture 
of the coming up of the rebel reserves at the battle of 
Bull Run, and shows how utterly impossible it was for 
our brave men, who had been fighting all day without 
respite, to hold the ground which they had so heroically 
won : 

THE PAGEANT OF THE ENEMY'S RESERVES. 

" Every thing, therefore, indicated another lull, and it 
could not be made certain to our minds but that we had 
really won the victory after all, and that the last cannon- 
ade was but the angry finish of the enemy. Suddenly a cry 
broke from the ranks of " Look there ! look there !" and, 
turning their eyes toward Manassas, the whole of our 
drooping regiments, as well those who were moving to 
the rear as those who stood, saw a sight which none who 
gazed upon it will ever forget. 

" At a long way off up the rise, and issuing from the 
enemy's extreme left, appeared, slowly debouching into 
sight, a dense column of infantry, marching with slow 
and solid step, and looking, at this noiseless distance, like 
a mirage of ourselves, or the illusion of a panorama. Rod 
by rod the massive column lengthened, not breaking off at 
the completion of a regiment, as we had hoped, but still 
pouring on, and on, and on, till one regiment had length- 
ened into ten. Even then the stern tide did not pause, 
for one of its arms turned downward along the far side 
of the triangle, and, the source of the flood thus relieved, 
poured forth again, and commenced lining the other in 

* This work is not only embellished but strengthened by the extracts from the 
New York Ledger, a great paper owned and edited by a noble and extraordinary 
man, Robert Bonneh. — Ed. 



206 PATRIOTIC AND HEROIC ELOQUENCE. 

like manner. Still the solemn picture swelled its volume, 
till the ten regiments had grown into fifteen, and had 
taken the formation of three sides of a hollow square. 
Our awe-struck legions, though beginning to feel the ap- 
proaches of despair, could not take their eyes from that 
majestic pageant, and, though experiencing a new neces- 
sity, were frozen to the sight. The martial tide flowed 
on, the lengthening regiments growing into twenty thous- 
and men, with a mass of Black cavalry in its centre, the 
whole moving toward us, as the sun danced upon its 
pomp of bayonets, with the solemn step of fate. This 
was war ; compact, well-made, and reasoning war. It 
was war, too, in all its panoply and glory, as well as in 
its strength, and we at once comprehended we were 
beaten." 

Competent critics say that Russell, the famous cor- 
respondent of the London Times, never wrote any thing 
equal to Wilkes's account of this battle. No father can 
read with dry eyes the following touching description of 
the death of a little drummer boy : 

" Several fell at this spot, and among others, the favor- 
ite drummer boy of the 2d. The poor little fellow was 
struck by a cannon-ball, which took him just below the 
arm-pits, and literally cut him in two, his childish shriek 
of pain mingling with the whistle of the rifled shot as 
his little life went with it down the wind." 

The following is his description of a youthful com- 
mander : 

"While the 32d was in this position, the 16th and 31st 
having passed within its range, a youthful orderly rode 
up to Colonel Matheson to inform him that the Black 
cavalry, sheltered from his observation by a piece of 
woods, were coming upon the right, and if he would 
take a cut with his regiment across the fields, they would 
be turned back upon their errand. 

" The evolution was performed, gave the protectior 



PATRIOTIC A2TO HEROIC ELOQUENCE. 207 

that was desired, and the Black Horse gave up its pur- 
pose in that quarter. While the regiment, however, was 
adhering to this position, the same youth who had im- 
parted the previous suggestion, rode up to the regiment 
again, and told Matheson he had better fall back on Cen- 
treville, as his duty at that spot had been thoroughly 
performed. As this was about the first sign of orders 
(with one single exception) he had received during the 
entire day, Matheson felt some curiosity to learn who 
this young lieutenant was, and whence these orders 
came ; he therefore turned sharply on the youth, who, 
he now perceived, could not be more than twenty-two or 
twenty-three, and said, 'Young man, I would like to 
know your name ?' The youth replied that he was a son 
of Quartermaster-General Meigs. 4 By whose authority, 
then, do you deliver me these orders ?' was the Califor- 
nian's next inquiry. The young man smiled, and re- 
marked, ' Well, sir, the truth is, that for the last few 
hours I have been giving all the orders for this division, 
and acting as general, too, for there is no general on the 
field.' This incident is worthy of our notice among the 
lessons of the day." 



The Pioneees. — Charles A. Jones. 



. 



Where are the hardy yeomen 

Who battled for this land, 
And -trod these hoar old forests, 

A brave and gallant band ? 
Oh, know ye where they slumber ? 

No monument appears, 
For freedom's pilgrims to draw nigh, 

And hallow with their tears l/ 
Or were no works of glory 

Done in the olden time ? 
And has the West no story 

Of deathless deeds sublime ? 



208 PATRIOTIC AND HEROIC ELOQUENCE. 

Go ask yon shining river, 

And it will tell a tale 
Of deeds of noble daring, 

"Will make thy cheek grow pale. 
Go ask yon smiling valley, 

"Whose harvests bloom so fair, 
'Twill tell thee a sad story 

Of the brave who slumber there : 
Go ask yon mountain, rearing 

Its forest crest so high ; 
Each tree upon its summit 

Has seen a warrior die. 

They knew no dread of danger, 

"When rose the Indian's yell ; 
Right gallantly they struggled, 

Right gallantly they feU ; 
From Alleghany's summit, 

To the farthest western shore, 
These brave men's bones are lying 

Where they perished in their gore ; 
And not a single monument 

Is seen in ah the land, 
In honor of the memory 

Of that heroic band. 

Their bones were left to whiten 

The spot where they were slain, 
And were ye now to seek them, 

They would be sought in vain. 
The mountain cat has feasted 

Upon them as they lay ; 
Long, long ago they mingled 

Again with other clay : 
Their very names are dying, 

Unconsecrate by fame, 
In oblivion they slumber, 

Our glory and our shame I 



patriotic and heroic eloquence. 209 

The Men to make a State: their Making and 
their Marks.* — Bishop Doane. 

It is only God who sees, and can declare, " the end 
from the beginning." "With him, the end is in the be- 
ginning : not as the oak is in the acorn ; but in its full 
growth, with all its foliage, and with all its fruits. Shaks- 
peare, that greatest master of humanity, as true in logic, 
as he is sublime in poetry, has well expressed the nearest 
that man comes, in this respect, to God ; as made with 
" large discourse, looking before, and after." With God, 
there is no " after," as there can be no " before." His 
Past, His Future, is all Present. His name, " I AM." 

It is from this aspect of the divine omnipresence, His 
presence, through all time, as well as in every place — if 
we may say so, His ubiquitous eternity — that faith de- 
rives its confidence, and enterprise its courage. Man is 
of a day. He plants the acorn ; but can hardly hope to 
sit under the shadow of the oak. He lays the corner- 
stone ; but does not look to see the crowning of the bat- 
tlement. He nourishes the infant ; but counts not upon 
the comfort of the man. He sows, in hope. Some one, 
he knows, will reap. He plants, in hope. Some one, he 
knows, will pluck the fruit. By a beautiful provision — 
to overcome, to faithful hearts, the curse, that came in 
with the fall — mortality is thus immortalized. A race, 
which perishes, is made perpetual. Humanity achieves 
eternity. Homer felt it, when, to his sightless orbs, were 
given " the vision and the faculty divine," which, for 
three thousand years, have been the spell of universal 
man. Milton owned it, in that modest hope, that he 
might yet do something which the world would not 
willingly let die. And that old martyr wrote it in the 
fire, Avhen, to his brother bishop, he said : " Play the 

* A College Address. 



210 PATRIOTIC AND HEROIC ELOQUENCE. 

man ; and we shall light, to-day, a candle, m England, 
which shall never be put out !" 

Neighbors and friends, if there be, anywhere, pre- 
eminent encouragement for this presentiment of perpe- 
tuity, it is here, and in such places as this is. The seed 
whose life is in these furrows, is the seed of men. The 
harvest that we hope to ripen, is of hearts. Schools are 
the seed-plots of the state. An hundred years ago, and 
they who made this day immortal, were as these are 
now. In less than half the years that have rolled by 
since 'seventy-six, these, and their fellows in the colleges 
which star the land, will sway the state. We link our- 
selves, through them, with all the future ; as they link 
themselves, through us, with all the past. It is a chain 
of hearts ; and his will bear the recreant's curse who fails 
the sacred trust. The men who are to mould the nation, 
must be moulded here. These are the orators, the states- 
men, the priests, the patriots, the heroes, of the coining 
age. Through them, that age will take its mark from 
us. Their principles, their habits, their characters, will 
tell, through all the centuries to come, in surges that will 
roll and swell, forward and onward, till the dreadful day 
of doom. Can we do better, on the festival which con- 
secrates the memory of the fathers of the state, than to 
consider how we best shall serve it in the training of its 
sons ? What can be fitter for this, our third anniversary, 
than the contemplation of its sacred trust toward the 
commonwealth which shelters it in its broad shadow? 
The men to make a state : the making and the marks 
of men to make a state, will be appropriate themes to- 
day. 

The men, to make a state, must be intelligent men. I 
do not mean that they must know that two and two 
make four ; or, that six per cent, a year is half per cent. 
a month. I take a wider and a higher range. I limit 
myself to no mere utilitarian intelligence. This has its 



PATRIOTIC AXD HEROIC ELOQUENCE. 211 

place. And this will come almost unsought. The con- 
tact of the rough and rugged world will force men to 
it in self-defence. The lust of worldly gain will drag 
men to it for self-aggrandizement. But men so made 
will never make a state. The intelligence' which that 
demands will take a wider and a higher range. Its study 
will be man. It will make history its cheap experience. 
It will read hearts. It will know men. It will first 
know itself. "What else can govern men ? Who else 
can know the men to govern men ? The right of suffrage 
is a fearful thing. It calls for wisdom, and discretion, 
and intelligence, of no ordinary standard. It takes in, 
at every exercise, the interests of all the nation. Its re- 
sults reach forward through time into eternity. Its dis- 
charge must be accounted for among the dread responsi- 
bilities of the great day of judgment. Who will go to 
it blindly ? Who will go to it passionately ? "Who will 
go to it as a sycophant, a tool, a slave ? How many 
do ! These are not the men to make a state. 

Tlie men, to make, a state, must be honest men. I do 
not mean men that would never steal. I do not mean 
men that would scorn to cheat in making change. I 
mean men with a single face. I mean men with a single 
eye. I mean men with a single tongue. I mean men 
that consider, always, what is right ; and do it at what- 
ever cost. I mean men who can dine, like Andrew Mar- 
vel, on a neck of mutton ; and whom, therefore, no king 
on earth can buy. Men that are in the market for the 
highest bidder ; men that make politics their trade, and 
look to office for a living ; men that will crawl, where 
they cannot climb : these are not men to make a state. 

27ie men, to make a state, must be brave men. I do 
not mean the men that pick a quarrel. I do not mean 
the men that carry dirks. I do not mean the men that 
call themselves hard names ; as Bouncers, Killers, and 
the like. I mean the men that walk with open face and 



212 PATRIOTIC AND HEROIC ELOQUENCE. 

unprotected breast. I mean the men that do, but do not 
talk. I mean the men that dare to stand alone. I mean 
the men that are to-day where they were yesterday, and 
will be there to-morrow. I mean the men that can stand 
still and take the storm. I mean the men that are afraid 
to kill, but not afraid to die. The man that calls hard 
names and uses threats ; the man that stabs, in secret, 
with his tongue or with his pen ; the man that moves a 
mob to deeds of violence and self-destruction; the man 
that freely offers his last drop of blood, but never sheds 
the first : these are not the men to make a state. 

The men, to make a state, must be religious men. 
States are from God. States are dependent upon God. 
States are accountable to God. To leave God out of 
states is to be Atheists. I do not mean that men must 
cant. I do not mean that men must wear long faces. I 
do not mean that men must talk of conscience, while they 
take your spoons. One shrewdly called hypocrisy, the 
tribute which vice pays to virtue. These masks and 
vizors, in like manner, are the forced concession which 
a moral nature makes to him, whom, at the same time, 
it dishonors. I speak of men who feel and own a God. 
I speak of men who feel and own their sins. I speak of 
men who know there is a hell. I speak of men who 
think the Cross no shame. I speak of men who have it 
in their heart as well as on their brow. The men that 
own no future, the men that trample on the Bible, the 
men that never pray, are not the men to make a state. 

The men, to make a state, are made by faith. A man 
that has no faith is so much flesh. His heart, a muscle ; 
nothing more. He has no past, for reverence ; no future, 
for reliance. He fives. So does a clam. Both die. Such 
men can never make a state. There must be faith, which 
furnishes the fulcrum Archimedes could not find, for the 
long lever that should move the world. There must be 
faith to look through clouds and storms up to the sun 



PATRIOTIC AKD HEEOIC ELOQUENCE. 213 

that shines as cheerily on high as on creation's morn. 
There must he faith that can lay hold on heaven and let 
the earth swing- from beneath it, if God will. There must 
he faith that can afford to sink the present in the future; 
and let time go in its strong grasp upon eternity. This 
is tin- way that men are made, to make a state. 

The men, to make a state, are made by self-denial. 
The willow dallies with the water, and is fanned forever 
by its coolest breeze, and draws its waves up in continual 
pulses of refreshment and delight ; and is a willow, after 
all. An acorn has been loosened, some autumnal morn- 
ing, by a squirrel's foot. It finds a nest in some rude 
cleft of an old granite rock, where there is scarcely earth 
to cover it. It knows no shelter and it feels no shade. 
It squares itself against the storms. It shoulders through 
the blast. It asks no favor, and gives none. It grapples 
with the rock. It crowds up toward the sun. It is an 
oak. It has been seventy years an oak. It will be an 
oak for seven times seventy years ; unless you need a 
man-of-war to thunder at the foe that shows a flag upon 
the shore where freemen dwell : and then you take no 
willow in its daintiness and gracefulness ; but that old, 
hardy, storm-stayed and storm-strengthened oak. So are 
the men made that will make a state. 

The men, to make a state, are themselves made by obe- 
dience. Obedience is the health of human hearts : obe- 
dience to God ; obedience to father and to mother, who 
are, to children, in the place of God ; obedience to teach- 
ers and to masters, who are in the place of father and of 
mother ; obedience to spiritual pastors, who are God's 
ministers ; and to the powers that be, which are ordained 
of God. Obedience is but self-government in action : 
and he can never govern men who does not govern first 
himself. Only such men can make a state. 



214 PATRIOTIC AND HEROIC ELOQUENCE. 



The Greek Revolution. — Henry Clay. 

Has it come to this ? Are we so humbled, so low, so 
debased, that we dare not express our sympathy for suf- 
fering Greece ; that we dare not articulate our detesta- 
tion of the brutal excesses of which she has been the 
bleeding victim, lest we might offend some one or more 
of their imperial and royal majesties ? If gentlemen are 
afraid to act rashly on such a subject, suppose, Mr. Chair- 
man, that we unite in an humble petition, addressed to 
their majesties, beseeching them, that of their gracious 
condescension, they would allow us to express our feel- 
ings and our sympathies. How shall it run ? " We, the 
representatives of the free people of the United States 
of America, humbly approach the throne of your imperial 
and royal majesties, and supplicate that, of your imperial 
and royal clemency — " I cannot go through the dis- 
gusting recital; my lips have not yet learned to pro- 
nounce the sycophantic language of a degraded slave! 
Are we so mean, so base, so despicable, that we may not 
attempt to express our horror, utter our indignation, at 
the most brutal and atrocious war that ever stained earth 
or shocked high heaven ? at the ferocious deeds of a 
savage and infuriated soldiery, stimulated and urged on 
by the clergy of a fanatical and inimical religion, and 
rioting in all the excesses of blood and butchery, at the 
mere details of which the heart sickens and recoils ? 

If the great body of Christendom can look on calmly 
and coolly, while all this is perpetrated on a Christian 
people, in its own immediate vicinity, in its very presence, 
let us at least evince, that one of its remote extremities 
is susceptible of sensibility to Chi'istian wrongs, and ca- 
pable of sympathy for Christian sufferings ; that in this 
remote quarter of the world there are hearts not yet 
closed against compassion for human woes, that can pour 



PATRIOTIC AND HEROIC ELOQUENCE. 215 

out their indignant feelings at the oppression of a people 
endeared to us by evei y ancient recollection, and every 
modern tie. Sir, attempts have been made to alarm the 
committee by the dangers to our commerce in the Medi- 
terranean ; and a wretched invoice of figs and opium has 
been spread before us to repress our sensibilities and to 
eradicate our humanity. Ah ! sir, " what shall it profit 
a man if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul ?" 
or what shall it avail a nation to save the whole of a 
miserable trade, and lose its liberties ? 

On the subject of the other independent American 
states, hitherto it has not been necessary to depart from 
the rule of our foreign relations, observed in regard to 
Europe. Whether it will become us to do so or not, will 
be considered when we take up another resolution, lying 
on the table. But we may not only adopt this measure : 
we may go further ; we may recognize the government 
in the Morea, if actually independent, and it will be nei- 
ther war, nor cause of war, nor any violation of our neu- 
trality. Beside, sir, what is Greece to the allies ? A 
part of the dominions of any of them ? By no means. 
Suppose the people in one of the Philippine Isles, or any 
other spot still more insulated and remote, in Asia or 
Africa, were to resist their former rulers, and set up and 
establish a new government, are we not to recognize 
them, in dread of the holy allies ? If they are going to 
interfere, from the danger of the contagion of the exam- 
ple, here is the spot, our own favored land, where they 
must strike. This government, you, Mr. Chairman, and 
the body over which you preside, are the living and cut- 
ting reproach to allied despotism. If we are to offend 
them, it is not by passing this resolution. We are daily 
and hourly giving them cause of war. It is heije, and in 
our free institutions, that they will assail us. They will 
attack us because you sit beneath that canopy, and we 
are freely debating and deliberating upon the great in- 



216 PATRIOTIC AND HEROIC ELOQUENCE. 

terests of freemen, and dispensing the blessings of free 
government. They will strike, because we pass one of 
those bills on your table. The passage of the least of 
them, by our free authority, is more galling to despotic 
powers than would be the adoption of this so. much 
dreaded resolution. Pass it, and what do you do ? You 
exercise an indisputable attribute of sovereignty, for 
which you are responsible to none of them. You do the 
same when you perform any other legislative function ; 
no less. If the allies object to this measure, let them 
forbid us to take a vote in this house ; let them strip us 
of every attribute of independent government ; let them 
disperse us. 

Will gentlemen attempt to maintain that, on the 
principles of the law of nations, those allies would have 
cause of war ? If there be any principle which has been 
settled for ages, any which is founded in the very nature 
of things, it is that every independent state has the clear 
right to judge of the fact of the existence of other sov- 
ereign powers. I admit that there may be a state of 
inchoate initiative sovereignty, in which a new govern- 
ment, just struggling into being, cannot be said yet per- 
fectly to exist. But the premature recognition of such 
new government can give offence justly to no other than 
its ancient sovereign. The right of recognition compre- 
hends the right to be informed ; and the means of in- 
formation must, of necessity, depend upon the sound dis- 
cretion of the party seeking it. You may send out a 
commission of inquiry, and charge it with a provident at- 
tention to your own people and your own interests. 
Such will be the character of the proposed agency. It 
will not necessarily follow, that any public functionary 
will be appointed by the president. You merely grant 
the means by which the executive may act when he 
thinks proper. What does he tell you in his message ? 
That Greece is contending for her independence : that all 



PATRIOTIC AND HEROIC ELOQUENCE. 217 

sympathize with her; and that no power has declared 
against her. Pass this resolution, and what is the reply 
it conveys to him? "You have sent us grateful intelli- 
gence ; we feel warmly for Greece, and we grant you 
money that, when you shall think it proper, when the in- 
terests of this nation shall not be jeoparded, you may de- 
pute a commissioner or public agent to Greece." The 
whole responsibility is then left where the constitution 
puts it. A member in his place may make a speech or 
proposition, the house may even pass a vote, in respect 
to our foreign affairs, which the president, with the whole 
field lying before him, would not deem it expedient to 
effectuate. 

But, sir, it is not for Greece alone that I desire to see 
this measure adopted. It will give to her but little sup- 
port, and that purely of a moral kind. It is principally 
for America, for the credit and character of our common 
country, for our own unsullied name, that I hope to see 
it pass. Mr. Chairman, what appearance on the page of 
history woidd a record like this exhibit? "In the month 
of January, in the year of our Lord and Saviour, 1824, 
while all European Christendom beheld, with cold and 
unfeeling indifference, the unexampled wrongs and inex- 
pressible misery of Christian Greece, a proposition was 
made in the Congress of the United States, almost the 
sole, the last, the greatest depository of human hope and 
human freedom, the representatives of a gallant nation, 
containing a million of freemen ready to fly to arms, 
while the people of that nation were spontaneously ex- 
pressing its deep -toned feeling, and the whole continent, 
by one simultaneous emotion, was rising, and solemnly 
and anxiously supplicating and invoking high heaven to 
spare and succor Greece, and to invigorate her arms in 
her glorious cause, while temples and senate-houses were 
alike resounding with one burst of generous and holy 
sympathy ; in the year of our Lord and Saviour, that 
10 



218 PATRIOTIC AND IIEROIC ELOQUENCE. 

Saviour of Greece and of us ; a proposition was offered 
in the American Congress to send a messenger to Greece, 
to inquire into her state and condition, with a kind ex- 
pression of our good wishes and our sympathies — and it 
was rejected !" Go home, if you can ; go home if you 
dare, to your constituents, and tell them that you voted 
it down; meet, if you can, the appalling countenances of 
those who sent you here, and tell them that you shrank 
from the declaration of your own sentiments ; that you 
cannot tell how, but that some unknown dread, some in- 
describable apprehension, some indefinable danger, drove 
you from your purpose ; that the spectres of scimeters, 
and crowns, and crescents, gleamed before you and 
alarmed you ; and that you suppressed all the noble feel- 
ings prompted by religion, by liberty, by national inde- 
pendence, and by humanity. I cannot bring myself to 
believe that such will be the feeling of the majority of 
the committee. But, for myself, though every friend of 
the cause should desert it, and I be left to stand alone 
with the gentleman from Massachusetts, I will give to 
his resolution the poor sanction of my unqualified appro- 
bation. 



Eulogy on Henry Clay ; delivered September, 
1852.— John B. Fry. 

Henry Clay, whose loss a whole nation now mourns, 
was one of the purest patriots and most sagacious states- 
men of this or any other age in the history of the world. 
In the cause of our common country that wonderful man 
dedicated the fervor of his brave heart, and the gigantic 
powers of his extraordinary intellect. Every body con- 
cedes this now when he is no more. 

And here, fellow-citizens, I crave your indulgence for 
a brief moment whilst I attempt to respond to the impul- 






PATRIOTIC AND HEBOIO ELOQUENCE. 219 

ses and emotions awakened within me by my allusion to 
his death. Proudly conspicuous, elevated to the loftiest 
height, stands his imperishable fame. Yes ! so long as 
civil liberty and constitutional freedom shall retain vitali- 
ty on the earth — and may they evermore — so long will 
his fame continue to shed its effulgence over all their path- 
ways — a political sun as inextinguishable as the physical 
one in the heaveUs above us. Presidential honors could 
not have added aught to the brilliancy of his great civic 
achievements, nor given strength to his ever-glorious ex- 
ample, which, thank God, Is already ours, and our coun- 
try's. Away, away then, all intrusive regrets ; for neither 
the lapse of time, nor revolution, nor change of any sort, 
can dislodge this Freedom's idol from his secure abode 
in our warm and grateful hearts. — Noble soul ! Years, 
long years, did he toil for his country's good and glo- 
ry. And, in many instances, among a large portion of 
his fellow-citizens, in what manner were his patriotic ser- 
vices requited ? Abuse, revilement, opprobrious epithets 
of every conceivable description, were heaped upon him, 
causing his generous nature to bleed under accumulated 
wrongs. And yet, with his path thus hedged in and be- 
sieged, how did our hero bear himself? — for there may 
be heroes as well in senate-houses as on tented fields. 
Alone intent upon promoting the prosperity, the honor, 
and the renown of his country, he fixed his steadfast gaze 
on these, and pursued them with a dauntless intrepid- 
ity, and a wonderful energy. Bearing within himself 
the fullest impress of nature's greatness, he cast his 
whole weight into the career whence gleam the lights 
of civilization and republican liberty. In our sadness 
even, I give you joy ; for those calumnies of the past, 
which, while they pained our hearts and provoked our re- 
sentment, because aimed at the " great commoner," yet 
did not impair our love and confidence toward him, are 
now hushed into silence, deep and perpetual. 



220 PATRIOTIC AND HEKOIC ELOQUENCE. 

Mr. Clay once said — " Truth is omnipotent, and public 
justice certain." He lived to witness the triumph of his 
confiding faith — not, indeed, by presidential honors, but 
by those higher and more enduring honors which were 
conferred by his transcendent genius and talent ; his exalt- 
ed patriotism ; his accomplished statesmanship ; and by 
a great nation's gratitude and benedictions. Nor shall 
the American people have the exclusive bestowment of 
these honors. Wherever and whenever, in other lands, 
freedom's banner shall float, on it will appear, in letters 
of gold, the talismanic name of our departed champion 
— betokening the downfall of despotisms, the political re- 
generation of the world. 

Expiring at peace with his God ; his fame monopoliz- 
ing one of the most resplendent pages in the history of 
mankind, and embalmed in the purest affection of the dev- 
otees of republican institutions everywhere, he needed 
nothing more. His great reputation, in the absence of his 
personal presence, still moves onward, and will to the 
latest generation. The mists of succeeding ages will not 
obscure its glory ; but rather shall they impart to it in- 
creasing vividness and splendor. My heart turns instinc- 
tively, powerfully, resistlessly, to the tomb where we 
buried him. There beneath the green sod of his own 
beloved Kentucky, he sleeps sweetly, gently, peacefully. 
Thither, for all time, shall repair old men and matrons, 
young men and maidens, to drop the warm tear of grate- 
ful affection on the cherished spot of his calm repose. 



What is Life? — Charles D. Dm) 

An Eagle flew up in his heavenward flight, 
Far out of the reach of human sight, 
And gazed on the earth from the lordly height 
Of his sweeping and lone career : 



PATRIOTIC AND HEROIC ELOQUENCE. '221 

'■ And this is life I" he exulting screams, 
" To soar without fear where the lightning gleams, 
And look unblenched on the sun's dazzling beams, 
As they blaze through the upper 



A Lion sprang forth from his bloody bed, 

And roared till it seemed he would wake the dead, 

And man and beast from him wildly fled, 

As though there w r ere death in the * jne : 
" And this is life !" he triumphantly cried, 
" To hold my domain in the forest wide, 
Imprisoned by naught but the ocean's tide, 

And the ice of the frozen zone." 

"It is life," said a Whale, ''to swim the deep; 
O'er hills submerged and abysses to sweep, 
Where the gods of ocean their vigils keep, 

In the fathomless gulfs below ; 
To bask on the bosom of tropical seas, 
And inhale the fragrance of Ceylon's breeze, 
Or sport where the turbulent waters freeze, 

In the climes of eternal snow." 

" It is life," says a tireless Albatross, 

"To skim through the air when the dark waves toss 

In the storm that has swept the earth across, 

And never to wish for rest ; 
To sleep on the breeze as it softly flies, 
My perch in the air, my shelter the skies, 
And build my nest on the billows that rise 

And break with a pearly crest." 

" It is life," says a wild Gazelle, "to leap 
From crag to crag of the mountainous steep, 
Where the cloud's icy tears in purity sleep, 

Like the marble brow of death ; 
To stand, unmoved, on the outermost verge 
Of the perilous height, and watch the surge 
Of the waters beneath, that onward urge, 

As if sent by a demon's breath." 

" It is life," I hear a butterfly say, 

" To revel in blooming gardens by day, 



222 PATRIOTIC AND HEROIC ELOQUENCE. 

And nestle in cups of flowerets gay, 

When the stars the heavens illume ; 
To steal from the rose its delicate hue, 
And sip from the hyacinth glittering dew, 
And catch from beds of the violet blue 
The breath of its gentle perfume." 

"It is life," a majestic "War-horse neighed, 
"To prance in the glare of battle and blade, 
Where thousands in terrible death are laid, 

And scent of the streaming gore ; 
To dash, unappalled, through the fiery heat, 
And trample the dead beneath my feet, 
Mid the trumpet's clang, and the drum's loud beat, 

And the hoarse artillery's roar." 

"It is life," said a Savage, with hideous yell, 
" To roam unshackled the mountain and dell, 
And feel my bosom with majesty swell, 

As the primal monarch of aU ; 
To gaze on the earth, the sky and the sea, 
And feel that, like them, I am chainless and free, 
And never, while breathing, to bend the knee, 

But at the Manitou's call." 

An aged Christian went tottering by, 

And white was his hair, and dim was his eye, 

And his wasted spirit seemed ready to fly, 

As he said, with faltering breath : 
" It is life to move from the heart's first throes, 
Through youth and manhood to age's snows, 
In a ceaseless circle of joys and woes — 

It is life to prepare for death !" 



A Sea Fight. — J. Fenimore Cooper. 

The vessel, which appeared so inopportunely for the 
safety of the ill-manned British cruiser, was, in truth, a 
ship that had roved from among the islands of the Carib- 
bean sea, in quest of some such adventure as that which 



PATRIOTIC AXD IIEKOIU ELOQUEN( E. 223 

now presented, itself. She was called La Belle Fontange, 
aud her commander, a youth of two-and-twenty, was 
already well known in the salons of the Marais, and 
behind the walls of the Rue Basse des Reinparts, as one 
of the most gay and amiable of those who frequented the 
former, and one of the most spirited and skilful among 
the adventurers who sometimes trusted to their address 
hi the latter. Rank, and influence at Versailles, had 
procured for the young Chevalier Dumont de la Roche- 
forte a command to which he could lay no claim either 
by his experience or his services. His mother, a near 
relative of one of the beauties of the court, had been 
commanded to use sea-bathing, as a preventive against 
the consequences of the bite of a rabid lapdog. By way 
of a suitable episode to the long descriptions she was in 
the daily habit of writing to those whose knowledge of 
her new element was limited to the constant view of a 
few ponds and ditches teeming with carp, or an occasional 
glimpse of some of the turbid reaches of the Seine, she 
had vowed to devote her youngest child to Neptune ! 
In due time, that is to say, while the poetic sentiment 
was at the access, the young chevalier was duly enrolled, 
and, in a time that greatly anticipated all regular and 
judicious preferment, he was placed in command of the 
corvette in question, and sent to the Indies to gain glory 
for himself and his country. 

The Chevalier Dumont de la Rocheforte was brave, 
but his courage was not the calm and silent self-posses- 
sion of a seaman. Like himself, it was lively, buoyant, 
thoughtless, bustling, and full of animal feeling. He had 
all the pride of a gentleman, and, unfortunately for the 
duty which he had now for the first time to perform, one 
of its dictates taught him to despise that species of 
mechanical knowledge which it was, just at this moment, 
so important to the commander of La Fontange to possess. 
He could dance to admiration, did the honors of his cabin 



224 PATRIOTIC AND IIEBOIC ELOQUENCE. 

with faultless elegance, and had caused the death of an 
excellent mariner, who had accidentally fallen overboard, 
by jumping into the sea to aid him, without knowing 
how to swim a stroke himself — a rashness that had 
diverted those exertions which might have saved the 
unfortunate sailor, from the assistance of the subordinate 
to the safety of his superior. He wrote sonnets prettily, 
and had some ideas of the new philosophy which was 
just beginning to dawn upon the world ; but the cordage 
of his ship, and the lines of a mathematical problem, 
equally presented labyrinths he had never threaded. 

It was perhaps fortunate for the safety of all in her, 
that La Belle Fontange possessed an inferior officer, in the 
person of a native of Boulogne-sur-Mer, who was quite 
competent to see that she kept the proper course, and 
that she displayed none of the top-gallants of her pride, 
at unpropitious moments. The ship itself was sufficiently 
and finely moulded, of a light and airy rig, and of estab- 
lished reputation for speed. If it was defective in any 
thing, it had the fault, in common with its commander, 
of a want of sufficient solidity to resist the vicissitudes 
and dangers of the turbulent element on which it was 
destined to act. 

The vessels were now within a mile of each other. 
The breeze was steady, and sufficiently fresh for all the 
ordinary evolutions of a naval combat ; while the water 
was just quiet enough to permit the ships to be handled 
with confidence and accuracy. La Fontange was running 
with her head to the eastward, and, as she had the 
advantage of the wind, her tall tracery of spars leaned 
gently in the direction of her adversary. The Coquette 
was standing on the other tack, and necessarily inclined 
from her enemy. Both vessels were stripped to their 
topsails, spankers, and jibs, though the lofty sails of the 
Frenchman were fluttering in the breeze, like the graceful 
folds of some fanciful drapery. No human being was 



PATRIOTIC AND HEROIC ELOQUENCE. 225 

distinctly visible in either fabric, though dark clusters 
around each mast-head showed that the ready top-men 
were prepared to discharge their duties, even in the confu- 
sion and dangers of the impending contest. Once or twice 
La Fontange inclined her head more in the direction of 
her adversary; and then, sweeping up again to the wind, 
she stood on in stately beauty. The moment was near 
when the ships were about to cross each other, at a point 
where a musket would readily send its messenger across 
the water that lay between them. Ludlow, who closely 
watched each change of position, and every rise and fall 
of the breeze, went on the poop and swept the horizon 
with his glass, for the last time before his ship should be 
enveloped in smoke. To his surprise, he discovered a 
pyramid of canvas rising above the sea, in the direction 
of the wind. The sail was clearly visible to the naked 
eye, and had only escaped earlier observation in the 
duties of so urgent a moment. Calling the master to his 
side, he inquired his opinion concerning the character of 
the second stranger. But Trysail confessed it exceeded 
even his long-tried powers of observation to say more 
than that it was a ship running before the wind, with a 
cloud of sail spread. After a second and a longer look, 
however, the experienced master ventured to add, that 
the stranger had the squareness and symmetry of a 
cruiser, but of what size he would not yet presume to 
declare. 

" It may be a light ship, under her top-gallant and 
studding-sails, or it may be that we see only the lofty 
duck of some heavier vessel, Captain Ludlow ; — ha ! he 
has caught the eye of the Frenchman, for the corvette 
has signals abroad !" 

" To your glass ! — If the stranger answer, we have no 
choice but our speed." 

There was another keen and anxious examination of 
the upper spars of the distant ship, but the direction of 
10* 



226 PATRIOTIC AND HEROIC ELOQUENCE. 

the wind prevented any signs of her communicating with 
the corvette from being visible. La Fontange appeared 
equally uncertain of the character of the stranger, and for 
a moment there was some evidence of an intention to 
change her course. But the moment for indecision had 
passed. The ships were already sweeping up abreast of 
each other, under the constant pressure of the breeze. 

"Be ready, men!" said Ludlow, in a low but firm 
voice, retaining his elevated post on the poop, while he 
motioned to his companion to return to the main deck. 

" Fire at his flash !" 

Intense expectation succeeded. The two graceful 
fabrics sailed steadily on and came within hail. So pro- 
found was the stillness in the Coquette, that the rushing 
sound of the water she heaped under her bows was dis- 
tinctly audible to all on board, and might be likened to 
the deep breathing of some vast animal, that was collect- 
ing its physical energies for some unusual exertion. On 
the other hand, tongues were loud and clamorous among 
the cordage of La Fontange. Just as the ships were 
fairly abeam, the voice of young Dumont was heard, 
shouting through a trumpet, for his men to fire. Ludlow 
smiled, in a seaman's scorn. Raising his own trumpet, 
with a quiet gesture to his attentive and ready crew, the 
whole discharge of their artillery broke out of the dark 
side of the ship, as if it had been by the volition of the 
fabric. The answering broadside was received almost as 
soon as their own had been given, and the two vessels 
passed swiftly without the line of shot. 

The wind had sent back their own smoke upon the 
English, and for a time it floated on their decks, wreathed 
itself in the eddies of the sails, and passed away to lee- 
ward, with the breeze that succeeded to the counter- 
current of the explosions. The whistling of shot and the 
crash of wood had been heard amid the din of the combat. 
Giving a glance at his enemy, who still stood on, Ludlow 



PATRIOTIC AND HEROIC ELOQUENCE. 227 

leaned from the poop, and, with all a sailor's anxiety, he 
endeavored to scan the gear aloft. 

" What is gone, sir ?" he asked of Trysail, whose 
earnest face just then became visible through the drifting 
smoke. " What sail is so heavily flapping ?" 

" Little harm done, sir — little harm — bear a hand with 
the tackle on that fore-yard-arm, you lubbers ! you move 
like snails in a minuet ! The fellow has shot away the 
lee fore-top-sail-sheet, sir; but we shall soon get our 
wings spread again. Lash it down, boys, as if it were 
butt-bolted ; — so ; steady out your bowline, forward. — 
Meet her, you can ; meet her you may — meet her !" 

The smoke had disappeared, and the eye of the captain 
rapidly scanned the whole of his ship. Three or four top- 
men had already caught the flapping canvas, and were 
seated on the extremity of the fore-yard, busied in secur- 
ing their prize. A hole or two were visible in the other 
sails, and here and there an unimportant rope was dang- 
ling in a manner to show that it had been cut by shot. 
Further than this, the damage aloft was not of a nature 
to attract his attention. 

There was a different scene on deck. The feeble crew 
were earnestly occupied in loading the guns, and rammers 
and sponges were handled with all the intenseness which 
men would manifest in a moment so exciting. The 
Alderman was never more absorbed in his ledger than he 
noAV appeared in his duty of a cannoneer ; and the youths, 
to whom the command of the batteries had necessarily 
been confided, diligently aided him with their greater 
authority and experience. Trysail stood near the cap- 
stan, coolly giving the orders which have been related, 
and gazing upward with an interest so absorbed as to 
render him unconscious of all that passed around his 
person. Ludlow saw, with pain, that blood discolored 
the deck at his feet, and that a seaman lay dead within 
reach of his arm. The rent plank and shattered ceiling 



228 rATKIOTIC AND HEROIC ELOQUENCE. 

showed the spot where the destructive missile had enter- 
eel. Compressing his lips like a man resolved, the com- 
mander of the Coquette bent further forward and glanced 
at the wheel. The quarter-master, who held the spokes, 
was erect, steady, and kept his eye on the leech of the 
head-sail, as unerringly as the needle points to the pole. 

These were the observations of a single minute. The 
different circumstances related had been ascertained with 
so many rapid glances of the eye, and they had even been 
noted without losing for a moment the knowledge of the 
precise situation of La Fontange. The latter was already 
in stays. It became necessary to meet the evolution by 
another as prompt. 

The order was no sooner given, than the Coquette, as 
if conscious of the hazard she ran of being raked, whirl- 
ed away from the wind, and, by the time her adversary 
was ready to deliver her other broadside, she was in a 
position to receive and to return it. Again the ships 
approached each other, and once more they exchanged 
their streams of fire when abeam. 

Ludlow now saw, through the smoke, the ponderous 
yard of La Fontange swinging heavily against the breeze, 
and the main-topsail come flapping against her mast. 
Swinging off from the poop by a backstay that had been 
shot away a moment before, he alighted on the quarter- 
deck by the side of the master. 

"Touch all the braces!" he said, hastily, but still 
speaking low and clearly ; " give a drag upon the bow- 
lines — luff, sir, luff; jam the ship up hard against the 
wind!" 

The clear, steady answer of the quarter-master, and the 
manner in which the Coquette, still vomiting her sheets 
of flame, inclined toward the breeze, announced the 
promptitude of the subordinates. In another minute, the 
vast volumes of smoke which enveloped the two ships 
joined, and formed one white and troubled cloud, which 



PATRIOTIC AXO HEROIC ELOQUENCE. 229 

was Tolling swiftly before the explosions, over the surface 
of the sea, but which, as it rose higher in the air, sailed 
gracefully to leeward. 

Our young commander passed swiftly through the bat- 
teries, spoke encouragingly to his people, and resumed 
his post on the poop. The stationary position of La 
Fontange, and his own efforts to get to windward, were 
already proving advantageous to Queen Anne's cruiser. 
There was some indecision on the part of the other ship, 
which instantly caught the eye of one whose readiness in 
his profession so much resembled instinct. 

The Chevalier Dumont had amused his leisure by run- 
ning his eyes over the records of the naval history of his 
country, where he had found this and that commander ap- 
plauded for throwing their topsails to the mast, abreast of 
their enemies. Ignorant of the difference between a ship 
in line and one engaged singly, he had determined to prove 
himself equal to a similar display of spirit. At the mo- 
ment when Ludlow was standing alone on the poop, 
watching with vigilant eyes the progress of his own 
vessel and the position of his enemy, indicating merely 
by a look or a gesture to the attentive Trysail beneath, 
what he wished done, there was actually a wordy discus- 
sion on the quarter-deck of the latter, between the 
mariner of Boulogne-sur-Mer, and the gay favorite of the 
salons. They debated on the expediency of the step 
which the latter had taken, to prove the existence of a 
quality that no one doubted. The time lost in this differ- 
ence of ojnnion was of the last importance to the British 
cruiser. Standing gallantly on, she was soon out of the 
range of her adversary's fire ; and, before the Boulognois 
had succeeded in convincing his superior of his error, 
their antagonist was on the other tack, and luffing across 
the wake of La Fontange. The topsail was then tardily 
filled, but before the latter snip had recovered her motion, 
the sails of her enemy overshadowed her deck. There 



230 PATRIOTIC AND HEROIC ELOQUENCE. 

was now every prospect of the Coquette passing to wind- 
ward. At that critical moment, the fair-setting topsail 
of the British cruiser was nearly rent in two by a shot. 
The ship fell off, the yards interlocked, and the vessels 
were foul. 

The Coquette had all the advantage of position. Per- 
ceiving the important fact at a glance, Ludlow made sure 
of its continuance by throwing his grapnels. When the 
two ships were thus firmly lashed together, the young 
Dumont found himself relieved from a mountain of 
embarrassment. Sufficiently justified by the fact that not 
a single gun of his own would bear, while a murderous 
discharge of grape had just swept along his decks, he 
issued the order to board. But Ludlow, with his weak- 
ened crew, had not decided on so hazardous an evolution 
as that which brought him in absolute contact with his 
enemy, without foreseeing the means of avoiding all the 
consequences. The vessels touched each other only at 
one point, and this spot was protected by a row of mus- 
kets. No sooner, therefore, did the impetuous young 
Frenchman appear on the taffrail of his own ship, sup- 
ported by a band of followers, than a close and deadly 
fire swept them away to a man. Young Dumont alone 
remained. For a single moment, his eye glared wildly ; 
but the active frame, still obedient to the governing 
impulse of so impetuous a spirit, leaped onward. He fell, 
without life, on the deck of his enemy. 

Ludlow watched every movement with a calmness that 
neither personal responsibility, nor the uproar and rapid 
incidents of the terrible scene could discompose. 

" Now is our time to bring the matter hand to hand !" 
he cried, making a gesture to Trysail to descend from the 
ladder, in order that he might pass. 

His arm was arrested, and the grave old master pointed 
to windward. 

"There is no mistaking; the cut of those sails, or the 



PATRIOTIC AND HEROIC ELOQUENCE. 231 

lofty rise of those spars ! The stranger is another 
Frenchman !" 

One glance told Ludlow that his subordinate was 
right ; another sufficed to show what was now necessary. 

"Cast loose the forward grapnel — cut it — away with 
it, clear!" was shouted, through his trumpet, in a voice 
that rose commanding and clear, amid the roar of the 
combat. 

Released forward, the stern of the Coquette yielded to 
the pressure of her enemy, whose sails were all drawing, 
and she was soon in a position to enable her head-yards 
to be braced sharp aback, in a direction opposite to the 
one in which she had so lately lain. The whole broad- 
side was then delivered into the stern of La Fontange, 
the last grapnel was released, and the ships separated. 

The single spirit which presided over the evolutions 
and exertions of the Coquette, still governed her move- 
ments. The sails were trimmed, the ship was got in 
command, and, before the vessels had been asunder five 
minutes, the duty of the vessel was in its ordinary active, 
but noiseless train. 

Nimble top-men were on the yards, and broad folds 
of fresh canvas were flapping in the breeze, as the new 
sails were bent and set. Ropes were spliced, or supplied 
by new rigging, the spars examined, and, in fine, all that 
watchfulness and sedulous care were observed, which are 
so necessary to the efficiency and safety of a ship. Every 
spar was secured, the pumps were sounded, and the ves- 
sel held on her way, as steadily as if she had never fired 
nor received a shot. 

On the other hand La Fontange betrayed the indecision 
and confusion of a worsted ship. Her torn canvas was 
blowing about in disorder, many important ropes beat 
against her masts unheeded, and the vessel itself drove 
before the breeze in the helplessness of a wreck. For 
several minutes there seemed no controlling; mind in the 



232 PATRIOTIC AND HEROIC ELOQUENCE. 

fabric ; and when, after so much distance was lost as to 
give her enemy all the advantage of the wind, a tardy 
attempt was made to bring the ship up again, the tallest 
and most important of her masts was seen tottering, until 
it finally fell, with all its hamper, into the sea. 



God Bless our Stars. — Benjamin F. Taylor. 

" God bless our stars forever !" 

Thus the angels sang sublime, 
When round God's forges fluttered fast, 

The sparks of starry Time ! 
"When they fanned them with their pinions, 

Till they kindled into day, 
And revealed creation's bosom, 

Where the infant Eden lay. 

" God bless our stars forever 1" 

Thus they sang — the seers of old, 
When they beckoned to the Morning, 

Through the future's misty fold, 
When they waved the wand of wonder — 

When they breathed the magic word, 
And the pulses' golden glimmer, 

Showed the waking granite heard. 

" God bless our stars forever !" 

'Tis the burden of the song, 
Where the sail through hollow midnight 

Is flickering along ; 
When a ribbon of blue heaven 

Is agleaming through the clouds, 
With a star or two upon it, 

For the sailor in the shrouds I 

" God bless our stars forever I" 

It is Liberty's refrain, 
From the snows of wild Nevada 

To the sounding woods of Maine ; 



PATRIOTIC AND HEROIC ELOQUEN< E. 233 

Where the green Multnomah wanders, 

Where the Alabama rests, 
Where the thunder shakes his turban 

Over Alleghany's crests ; 

Where the mountains of New England 

Mock Atlantic's stormy main ; 
"Where God's palm imprints the prairie 

With the type of heaven again — 
Where the mirrored morn is dawning, 

Link to link, our lakes along, 
And Sacramento's Golden Gate 

Swinging open to the song — 

There and there ! " Our stars forever !" 

How it echoes I How it thrills ! 
Blot that banner ? Why, they bore it 

When no sunset bathed the hills. 
Now over Bunker see it billow, 

Now at Bennington it waves, 
Ticonderoga swells beneath, 

And Saratoga's graves ! 

Oh ! long- ago at Lexington, 

And above those minute-men, 
The " Old Thirteen" were blazing bright — 

There were only thirteen then ! 
God's own stars are gleaming through it — 

Stars not woven in its thread ; 
Unfurl it, and that flag will glitter 

With the heaven overhead. 

Oh ! it waved above the Pilgrims, 

On the pinions of the prayer; 
Oh I it billowed o'er the battle, 

On the surges of the air ; 
Oh ! the stars have risen in it, 

Till the eagle waits the sun, 
And Freedom from her mountain watch 

Has counted " thirty-one." 

When the weary Tears are halting, 
In the mighty march of Time, 



234 PATRIOTIC AND HEROIC ELOQUENCE. 

And no new ones throng the threshold 

Of its corridors sublime ; 
When the clarion call, " Close up I" 

Kings along the line no more, 
Then adieu, thou blessed banner, 

Then adieu, and not before ! 



General Lyon. 

The funeral honors that have attended General Lyon 
from the battle-field where he fell, across one half of a 
continent, taken up from state to state, from city to city, 
from village to village, and carried forward for near two 
thousand miles amid the tearful eyes, the bowed heads, 
and the deepest expressions of personal sorrow of hun- 
dreds of thousands of grateful people — such honors never 
before, perhaps, paid to so young a general — came to 
their solemn conclusion yesterday in this city. Dulce et 
decorum est pro patria mori, said the Latin poet a great 
many hundred years ago ; and surely, though the senti- 
ment be old and the line as trite as household words, not 
less true is it now than when Rome sent out her armies 
to conquer the world, that it is sweet and beautiful to 
die for one's country. This young soldier, like more than 
one other, has laid down his life in this war, and has, by 
his courage, his devotion, and his patriotism, done his 
country a service by his example, to be preserved ever 
fresh and green with his memory, that is not often vouch- 
safed to the wisest and the best of men to do in centuries 
of time. Not without reason are such noble lives laid 
upon the altar! We garner up the remembrance of 
them — how this one saved a state, how that a city, and 
we crown ourselves with the names of heroes ! Not in 
vain have these young men fallen ; for other young men 
shall reverently lift the crown and remember that such 



PATRIOTIC AND HEROIC ELOQUENCE. 235 

a death as theirs is dulce et decorum, if their country 
needs more lives ! 

And let us not forgat this price which this war has 
already cost us. The precious blood that has beeu shed 
let us weigh, drop by drop, as precious as our private 
honor and our public name. The cost is not too much 
for the country's salvation ; priceless as it is, it is given 
freely to purchase the God-given rights of a free people. 
But the least drop of it all should never have reddened 
the ground if the sword is sheathed till treason is driven 
howling from the land, and that peace shall come that 
shall bid all future generations bless the memory of the 
men who died for liberty. When Lyon and others are 
laid with bloody wounds upon the bosom of their mother 
land, it should be as a pledge that she shall be redeem- 
ed from the stain of treason, and made free, and they 
therein avenged. 



Burning of a Ship. — J. Femmore Cooper. 

The Skimmer paused, for at that moment a fierce light 
glared upon the ocean, the ship, and all in it. The two 
seamen gazed at each other in silence, and both recoiled, 
as men recede before an unexpected and fearful attack. 
But a bright and wavering light, which rose out of the 
forward hatch of the vessel, explained all. At the same 
moment, the deep stillness which, since the bustle of 
making sail had ceased, pervaded the ship, was broken 
by the appalling cry of " Fire !" 

The alarm which brings the blood in the swiftest cur- 
rent to a seaman's heart, was now heard in the depths of 
the vessel. The smothered sounds below, the advancing 
uproar, and the rush on deck, with the awful summons 
in the open air, succeeded each other with the rapidity 
of lightning. A dozen voices repeated the words, " the 



236 PATRIOTIC AND HEROIC ELOQUENCE. 

grenade !" proclaiming in a breath both the danger and 
the cause. But an instant before, the swelling canvas, 
the dusky spars, and the faint lines of the cordage, were 
only to be traced by the glimmering light of the stars ; 
and now the whole hamper of the ship was the more con- 
spicuous, from the obscure background against which it 
was drawn in distinct lines. The sight was fearfully 
beautiful ; beautiful, for it showed the symmetry and fine 
outlines of the vessel's rig, resembling the effect of a 
group of statuary seen by torch-light — and fearful, since 
the dark void beyond seemed to declare their isolated 
and helpless state. 

There was one breathless, eloquent moment, in which 
all were seen gazing at the grand spectacle in mute awe, 
and then a voice rose, clear, distinct, and commanding, 
above the sullen sound of the torrent of fire, which was 
roaring among the avenues of the ship : 

" Call all hands to extinguish fire ! Gentlemen, to your 
stations. Be cool, men; and be silent!" 

There was a calmness and an authority in the tones of 
the young commander, that curbed the impetuous feelings 
of the startled crew. Accustomed to obedience and 
trained to order, each man broke out of his trance, and 
eagerly commenced the discharge of his allotted duty. 
At that instant, an erect and unmoved form stood on the 
combings of the main hatch. A hand was raised in the 
ah*, and the call, which came from the deep chest, was 
like that of one used to speak in the tempest. 

" Where are my brigantines ?" it said — " Come away 
there, my sea-dogs ; wet the light sails and follow !" 

A group of grave and submissive mariners gathered 
about the " Skimmer of the Seas," at the sound of his 
voice. Glancing an eye over them, as if to scan their 
quality and number, he smiled, with a look in which high 
daring and practised self-command were blended with a 
constitutional gaite de coeur. 



PATRIOTIC AND HEROIC ELOQUENCE. 237 

" One deck, or two !" — lie added ; " what avails a plank, 
more or less, in an explosion? — Follow!" 

The free-trader and his people disappeared in the inte- 
rior of the ship. An interval of great and resolute exer- 
tion succeeded. Blankets, sails, and every thing which 
offered, and which promised to be of use, were wetted 
and cast upon the flames. The engine was brought to 
bear, and the ship was deluged with water. But the 
confined space, with the heat and smoke, rendered it 
impossible to penetrate to those parts of the vessel where 
the conflagration raged. The ardor of the men abated 
as hope lesseiied, and after half an hour of fruitless exer- 
tion, Ludlow saw, with pain, that his assistants began to 
yield to the inextinguishable principle of nature. The 
appearance of the Skimmer on deck, followed by all his 
people, destroyed hope, and every effort ceased as sud- 
denly as it had commenced. 

"Think of your wounded;" whispered the free-trader, 
with a steadiness no danger could disturb, " we stand on 
a raging volcano !" 

" I have ordered the gunner to drown the magazine." 

" He was too late. The hold of the ship is a fiery fur- 
nace. I heard him fall among the store-rooms, and it 
surpassed the power of man to give the wretch succor. 
The grenade has fallen near some combustibles, and, pain- 
ful as it is to part with a ship so loved, Ludlow, thou wilt 
meet the loss like a man! Think of thy wounded; my 
boats are still hanging at the stern." 

Ludlow reluctantly, but firmly, gave the order to bear 
the wounded to the boats. This was an arduous and 
delicate duty. The smallest boy in the ship knew the 
whole extent of the clanger, and that a moment, by the 
explosion of the powder, might precipitate them all into 
eternity. The deck forward was getting too hot to be 
endured, and there were places even in which the beams 
had given symptoms of yielding. 



238 PATRIOTIC AND HEROIC ELOQUENCP:. 

But the poop, elevated still above the fire, offered a 
momentary refuge. Thither all retired, while the weak 
and wounded were lowered, with the caution circum- 
stances would permit, into the whale-boats of the smug- 
glers. 

Ludlow stood at one ladder and the free-trader at 
the other, in order to be certain that none proved re- 
creant hi so trying a moment. Near them were Alida, 
Seadrift, and the Alderman, with the attendants of the 
former. 

It seemed an age before this humane and tender duty 
was performed. At length the cry of " all in !" was 
uttered, in a manner to betray the extent of the self-com- 
mand that had been necessary to effect it. 

" Now, Alida, we may think of thee !" said Ludlow, 
turning to the spot occupied by the silent heiress. 

" And you !" she said, hesitating to move. 

"Duty demands that I should be the last " 

A sharp explosion beneath, and fragments of fire flying 
upward through a hatch, interrupted his words. Plunges 
into the sea, and a rush of the people to the boats, follow- 
ed. All order and authority were completely lost, in the 
instinct of life. In vain did Ludlow call on his men to be 
cool, and to wait for those who were still above. His 
words were lost, in the uproar of clamorous voices. For 
a moment, it seemed, however, as if the Skimmer of the 
Seas would overcome the confusion. Throwing himself 
on a ladder, he glided into the bows of one of the boats, 
and, holding by the ropes with a vigorous arm, he resisted 
the efforts of all the oars and boat-hooks, while he de- 
nounced destruction on him who dared to quit the ship. 
Had not the two crews been mingled, the high authority 
and determined mien of the free-trader would have pre- 
vailed ; but while some were disposed to obey, others 
raised the cry of " Throw the dealer in witchcraft into the 
sea!" Boat-hooks were already pointed at his breast, 



PATRIOTIC AND HEROIC ELOQUENCE. 239 

ami the horrors of the fearful moment were about to be 
increased by the violence of a mutinous contention, when 
a second explosion nerved the arms of the rowers to mad- 
ness. With a common and desperate effort, they over- 
came all resistance. Swinging off upon the ladder, the 
furious seaman saw the boat glide from his grasp, and 
depart. The execration that was uttered, beneath the 
stern of the Coquette, was deep and powerful ; but, in 
another moment, the Skimmer stood on the poop, calm 
and undejected, in the centre of the deserted group. 

"The explosion of a few of the officers' pistols has 
frightened the miscreants," he said, cheerfully ; " but 
hope is not yet lost ! — they linger in the distance and may 
return !" 

The sight of the helpless party on the poop, and the 
consciousness of being less exposed themselves, had 
indeed arrested the progress of the fugitives. Still, self- 
ishness predominated ; and while most regretted their 
danger, none but the young and unheeded midshipmen, 
who were neither of an age nor of a rank to wield suffi 
cient authority, proposed to return. There was little 
argument necessary to show that the perils increased at 
each moment ; and, finding that no other expedient 
remained, the gallant youths encouraged the men to pull 
toward the land ; intending themselves to return instantly 
to the assistance of their commander and his friends. The 
oars dashed into the water again, and the retiring boats 
were soon lost to view in the body of darkness. 

While the fire had been raging within, another element 
without had aided to lessen hope for those who were 
abandoned. The wind from the land had continued to 
rise, and, during the time lost in useless exertion, the 
ship had been permitted to run nearly before it. When 
hope was gone the helm had been deserted, and, as all 
the lower sails had been hauled up to avoid the flames, 
the vessel had drifted, many minutes, nearly dead to lee- 



240 PATRIOTIC AND HEEOIC ELOQUENCE. 

ward. The mistaken youths, who had not attended to 
these circumstances, were already miles from that beach 
they hoped to reach so soon ; and ere the boats had sepa- 
rated from the ship five minutes, they were hopelessly 
asunder. Ludlow had early thought of the expedient 
of stranding the vessel, as the means of saving her people ; 
but his better knowledge of their position, soon showed 
him the utter futility of the attempt. 

Of the progress of the flames beneath, the mariners 
could only judge by circumstances. The Skimmer glanced 
his eye about him, on regaining the poop, and appeared 
to scan the amount and quality of the physical force that 
was still at their disposal. He saw that the Alderman, 
the faithful Francois, and two of his own seamen, with 
four of the petty oflicers of the ship, remained. The six 
latter, even in that moment of desperation, had calmly 
refused to desert their officers. 

" The flames are in the state-rooms !" he whispered to 
Ludlow. 

" Not further aft, I think, than the berths of the mid- 
shipmen — else we should hear more pistols." 

"True — they are fearful signals to let us know the 
progress of the fire ! — our resource is a raft." 

Ludlow looked as if he despaired of the means ; but, 
concealing the discouraging fear, he answered cheerfully 
in the affirmative. The orders were instantly given, and 
all on board gave themselves to the task, heart and hand. 
The danger was one that admitted of no ordinary or half- 
conceived expedients; but, in such an emergency, it 
required all the readiness of their art, and even the great- 
ness of that conception which is the property of genius. 
All distinctions of rank and authority had ceased, except 
as deference was paid to natural qualities and the intelli- 
gence of experience. Under such circumstances, the 
"Skimmer of the Seas" took the lead; and though Lud- 
low caught his ideas with professional quickness, it was 



PATRIOTIC AND IIEKOIC ELOQUENCE. 24:1 

the mind of the free-trader that controlled, throughout, 
the succeeding exertions of that fearful night. 

The cheek of Alida was blanched to a deadly paleness ; 
hut there rested about the bright and wild eyes of Sea- 
drift, an expression of supernatural resolution. 

When the crew abandoned the hope of extinguishing 
the flames, they had closed aU the hatches, to retard the 
crisis as much as possible. Here and there, however, 
little torch-like lights were beginning to show themselves 
through the planks, and the whole deck, forward of the 
mainmast was already in a critical and sinking state. One 
or two of the beams had failed, but, as yet, the form of 
the construction was preserved. Still the seamen dis- 
trusted the treacherous footing, and, had the heat per- 
mitted the experiment, they would have shrunk from a 
risk which, at any unexpected moment, might commit 
them to the fiery furnace beneath. 

The smoke ceased, and a clear, powerful light illumi- 
nated the ship to her trucks. In consequence of the care 
and exertions of her people, the sails and masts were yet 
untouched ; and as the graceful canvas swelled with the 
breeze, it still urged the blazing hull through the water. 

The forms of the Skimmer and his assistants were visi- 
ble, in the midst of the gallant gear, perched on the giddy 
yards. Seen by that light, with his peculiar attire, his 
firm and certain step, and his resolute air, the free-trader 
resembled some fancied sea-god, who, secure in his immor- 
tal immunities, had come to act his part in that awful, but 
exciting trial of hardihood and skill. Seconded by the 
common men, he was employed in cutting the canvas from 
the yards. Sail after sail fell upon the deck, and, in an 
incredibly short space of time, the whole of the foremast 
was naked to its spars and rigging. 

In the mean time, Ludlow, assisted by the Alderman 
and Francois, had not been idle below. Passing forward 
between the empty ridgc-rppes, lanyard after lanyard 
11 



24:2 PATRIOTIC AND HEROIC ELOQUENCE. 

parted under the blows of their little boarding-axes. The 
mast now depended on the strength of the wood and the 
support of a single back-stay. 

"Lay down!" shouted Ludlow. "All is gone aft but 
this stay!" 

The Skimmer leaped upon the firm rope, followed by 
all aloft, and, gliding downward, he was instantly in the 
hammock-cloths. A crash followed their descent, and an 
explosion, which caused the whole of the burning fabric 
to tremble to its centre, seemed to announce the end of 
all. Even the free-trader recoiled before the horrible din ; 
but when he stood near Seadrift and the heiress again, 
there was cheerfnlness in his tones, and a look of high 
and even of gay resolution in his firm countenance. 

" The deck has failed forward," he said, " and our artil- 
lery is beginning to utter fearful signal guns ! Be of 
cheer! — the magazine of a ship lies deep, and many 
sheathed bulkheads still protect us." 

Another discharge from a heated gun, however, pro- 
claimed the rapid progress of the flames. The fire broke 
out of the interior anew, and the foremast kindled. 

" There must be an end of this !" said Alida, clasping 
her hands in a terror that could not be controlled. 
"Save yourselves, if possible, you who have strength 
and courage, and leave us to the mercy of Him whose 
eye is over all!" 

"Go!" added Seadrift, whose sex could no longer be 
concealed. " Human courage can do no more : leave us 
to die!" * 

The looks that were returned to these sad requests 
were melancholy, but unmoved. The Skimmer caught 
a rope, and still holding it in his hand, he descended to 
the quarter-deck, on which he at first trusted his weight 
with jealous caution. Then looking up, he smiled encour- 
agingly, and said — " Where a gun still stands, there is no 
danger for the weight of a man !" 



PATRIOTIC AND HEROIC ELOQUENCE. 243 

"It is our only resource;" cried Ludlow, imitating 
his example. " On, my men, while the beams will still 
hold us." 

In a moment all were on the quarter-deck, though the 
excessive heat rendered it impossible to remain stationary 
an instant. A gun on each side was run in, its tackles 
loosened, and its muzzle pointed toward the tottering, 
unsupported, but still upright foremast. 

"Aim at the cleetsl" said Ludlow to the Skimmer, 
who pointed one gun, while he did the same office at 
the other. 

" Hold !" cried the latter. " Throw in shot — it is but 
the chance between a bursting gun and a lighted maga- 
zine !" 

Additional balls were introduced into each piece, and 
then, with steady hands, the gallant mariners applied 
burning brands to the priming. The discharges were 
simultaneous, and, for an instant, volumes of smoke rolled 
along the deck and seemed to triumph over the conflagra- 
tion. The rending of wood was audible. It was followed 
by a sweeping noise in the air, and the fall of the fore- 
mast, with all its burden of spars, into the sea. The 
motion of the ship was instantly arrested, and, as the 
heavy timbers were still attached to the bowsprit by the 
forward stays, her head came to the wind, when the 
remaining topsails flapped, shivered, and took aback. 

The vessel was now, for the first time during the fire, 
stationary. The common mariners profited by the cir- 
cumstance, and, darting past the mounting flame along 
the bulwarks, they gained the top-gallant-forecastle, 
which, though heated, was yet untouched. The Skim- 
mer glanced an eye about him, and seizing Seadrift by 
the waist, as if the mimic seaman had been a child, he 
pushed forward between the ridge-ropes. Ludlow fol- 
lowed with Alida, and the others imitated their exam- 
ple in the best manner they could. All reached the 



24:4 PATRIOTIC AND HEKOIC ELOQUENCE. 

head of the ship in safety, though Ludlow had been driven 
by the flames into the fore-channels, and thence nearly 
into the sea. 

The petty officers were already on the floating spars, 
separating them from each other, cutting away the unne- 
cessary weight of rigging, bringing the several parts of 
the wood in parallel lines, and lashing them anew. Ever 
and anon, these rapid movements were quickened by one 
of those fearful signals from the officers' berths, which, 
by announcing the progress of the flames beneath, betrayed 
their increasing proximity to the still slumbering volcano. 
The boats had been gone an hour, and yet it seemed to 
all in the ship but a minute. The conflagration had, for 
the last ten minutes, advanced with renewed fury ; and 
the whole of the confined flame, which had been so long 
pent in the depths of the vessel, now glared high in the 
open air. 

"This heat can no longer be borne," said Ludlow; 
" we must to our raft, for breath." 

" To the raft, then !" returned the cheerful voice of the 
free-trader. " Haul in upon your fasts, men, and stand 
by to receive the precious freight." 

The seamen obeyed. Alida and her companions were 
lowered safely to the place prepared for their reception. 
The foremast had gone over the side, with all its spars 
aloft; for preparation had been made, before the fire 
commenced, to carry sail to the utmost, in order to escape 
the enemy. The skilful and active seamen, directed and 
aided by Ludlow and the Skimmer, had made a simple, 
but happy disposition of those buoyant materials on 
which their all now depended. In settling in the water, 
the yards, still crossed, had happily fallen uppermost. 
The booms and all the light spars had been floated near 
the top, and laid across, reaching from the lower to the 
topsail-yard. A few light spars, stowed outboard, had 
been cut away and added to the number, and the whole 



PATRIOTIC AND HEROIC ELOQUENCE. 245 

were secured, with the readiness and ingenuity of sea- 
men. On the first alarm of fire, some of the crew had 
seized a few light articles that would float, and rushed 
to the head, as the place most remote from the magazine, 
in the blind hope of saving life by swimming. Most of 
these articles had been deserted, when the people were 
rallied to exertion by their officers. A couple of empty 
shot-boxes and a mess-chest were among them, and on 
the latter were seated the females, while the former 
served to keep their feet from the water. As the ar- 
rangement of the spars forced the principal mast entirely 
beneath the element, and the ship was so small as to need 
little artificial work in her masting, the part around the 
top, which contained the staging, was scarcely submerged. 
Although a ton in weight was added to the inherent 
gravity of the wood, still, as the latter was of the light- 
est description, and freed as much as possible from every 
thing that was unnecessary to the safety of those it sup- 
ported, the spars floated sufficiently buoyant for the tem- 
porary security of the fugitives. 

" Cut the fast!" said Ludlow, involuntarily starting at 
several explosions in the interior, which followed each 
other in quick succession, and which were succeeded by 
one which sent fragments of burning wood into the air. 
" Cut, and bear the raft off the ship !— God knows, we 
have need to be further asunder ! " 

"Cut not!" cried the half -frantic Seadrift— "My 
brave ! — my devoted ! " 

"Is safe; — " calmly said the Skimmer, appearing in 
the rattlings of the main-rigging, which was still un- 
touched by the fire — " Cut off all ! I stay to brace the 
mizen-topsail more firmly aback." 

The duty was done, and for a moment the fine figure 
of the free-trader was seen standing on the edge of the 
burning ship, looking with regret at the glowing mass. 

" Tis the end of a lovely craft !" he said, loud enough 



246 PATRIOTIC AND HEROIC ELOQUENCE. 

to be heard by those beneath. Then he appeared in the 
air, and sunk into the sea — " The last signal was from 
the ward-room," added the dauntless and dexterous 
mariner, as he rose from the water, and, shaking the 
brine from his head, he took his place on the stage — 
" Would to God the wind would blow, for we have need 
of greater distance !" 

The precaution the free-trader had taken, in adjusting 
the sails, was not without its use. Motion the raft had 
none, but as the topsails of the Coquette were still aback, 
the flaming mass, no longer arrested by the clogs in the 
water, began slowly to separate from the floating spars, 
though the tottering and half-burnt masts threatened, at 
each moment, to fall. 

Never did moments seem so long, as those which suc- 
ceeded. Even the Skimmer and Ludlow watched in 
speechless interest, the tardy movements of the ship. 
By little and little, she receded ; and, after ten minutes 
of intense expectation, the seamen, whose anxiety had 
increased as their exertions ended, began to breathe 
more freely. They were still fearfully near the danger- 
ous fabric, but destruction from the explosion was no 
longer inevitable. The flames began to glide upward, 
and then the heavens appeared on fire, as one heated 
sail after another kindled and flared wildly in the 
breeze. 

Still the stern of the vessel was entire. The body of 
the master was seated against the mizen-mast, and even 
the stern visage of the old seaman was distinctly visible, 
under the broad light of the conflagration. Ludlow 
gazed at it in melancholy, and for a time he ceased to 
think of his ship, while memory dwelt, in sadness, on 
those scenes of boyish happiness, and of professional 
pleasures, in which his ancient shipmate had so largely 
participated. The roar of a gun, whose stream of fire 
flashed nearly to their faces, and the sullen whistling of 



PATRIOTIC AND IIKEOIC ELOQUENCE. 247 

its shot, which crossed the raft, failed to awaken him 
from his trance. 

" Stand firm, to the mess-chest !" half- whispered the 
Skimmer, motioning to his companions to place them- 
selves in attitudes to support the weaker of their party, 
while, with sedulous care, he braced his own athletic per- 
son in a manner to throw all of its weight and strength 
against the seat. " Stand firm, and he ready !" 

Ludlow complied, though his eye scarce changed its 
direction. He saw the bright flame that was rising 
above the arm-chest, and he fancied that it came from 
the funeral pile of the young Dumont, whose fate, at 
that moment, he was almost disposed to envy. Then his 
look returned to the grim countenance of Trysail. At 
moments, it seemed as if the dead master spoke ; and so 
strong did the illusion become, that our young sailor 
more than once bent forward to listen. While under 
this delusion, the body rose with the arms stretched up- 
ward. The air was filled with a sheet of streaming fire, 
while the ocean and the heavens glowed with one glare 
of intense and fiery red. Notwithstanding the precau- 
tion of the ' Skimmer of the Seas,' the chest was driven 
from its place, and those by whom it was held were 
nearly precipitated into the water. A deep, heavy de- 
tonation proceeded as it were from the bosom of the sea, 
which, while it wounded the ear less than the sharp ex- 
plosion that had just before issued from the gun, was 
audible at the distant capes of the Delaware. The body 
of Trysail sailed upward for fifty fathoms, in the centre 
of a flood of flame, and, describing a short curve, it came 
toward the raft, and cut the water within reach of the 
captain's arm. A sullen plunge of a gun followed, and 
proclaimed the tremendous power of the explosion ; 
while a ponderous yard fell athwart a part of the raft, 
sweeping away the four petty officers of Ludlow, as if 
they had been dust driving before a gale. To increase the 



248 PATRIOTIC AND HEROIC ELOQUENCE. 

wild and fearful grandeur of the dissolution of the royal 
cruiser, one of the cannon emitted its fiery contents while 
sailing in the void. 

The burning spars, the falling fragments, the blazing 
and scattered canvas and cordage, the glowing shot, and 
all the torn particles of the ship, were seen descending. 
Then followed the gurgling of water, as the ocean swal- 
lowed all that remained of the cruiser which had so long 
been the pride of the American seas. The fiery glow dis- 
appeared, and a gloom like that which succeeds the glare 
of vivid lightning, fell on the scene. 



Heroic Speech — 1861. — General B. F. Butler. 

Mr. Mayor and Fellow-Citizens : Your words of 
welcome are most dear. Home has brought to my mind 
all those associations of childhood, youth, and manhood 
that cluster around that sacred name, and in my absence 
I have known that here at least my motives would not 
be misunderstood, my acts if worthy would be appre- 
ciated, and my reward would be most dear. In the ap- 
probation of these my neighbors — if in any thing I have 
deserved well of my country or have been enabled to 
render a service to the glorious cause for which we all 
labor and to the Constitution which we all love — I have 
received more than my reward to-night. The approba- 
tion of my neighbors and townsmen is a fit reward for 
greater services than mine. 

I have endeavored to do my duty, and with the noble 
Massachusetts soldiers who left this town with me, and 
so far as action and purpose are concerned, I think we 
can say you have nothing of which you need be ashamed. 
Lowell has sent out the best regiment that has left the 
Commonwealth, and therefore the first in the United 



PATRIOTIC AND HEROIC ELOQUENCE. 24-9 

States. The first to be baptized in blood at Baltimore, find 
the first martyrs in this second revolution, which is greater 
than the first, was the Sixth — the Lowell regiment. 

And when one day the Sixth inarched into Baltimore 
again, about this time in the evening, with the rains of 
heaven falling upon us, and the lightning of heaven 
gleaming upon our guns, I saw a spectacle more splen- 
did than I had ever before beheld, or than usually falls 
to the lot of man to witness — a spectacle of moral sub- 
limity. Treason had done its work and driven the sol- 
diers from the town, but another power had brought 
them back, and I claim for Massachusetts — for the Sixth 
— that no man shall say that the soldiers of Lowell are 
not to have the foremost honors of the war. 

More than that, you sent after them other companies, 
and of one I have the right to speak a word, as it came 
under my own command. The " Richardson Guard" 
was better equipped and better cared for than any 
other company that had marched from Massachusetts 
or into Virginia, and I am glad to say here publicly 
that, at the request of the officers of the regular army 
at Fortress Monroe, that company was made a part of 
the regular garrison at the Fortress — a compliment that 
has been paid to no other company by the officers of the 
regular army. I say again that Lowell has reason to be 
proud of her soldiers ; and have not her soldiers reason 
to be proud of Lowell ? 

You say well, sir, there are no parties. We have a 
country torn at the present hour by intestine war, and 
until that country is put in peace, in quiet, there must 
be no party and no thought of party. No compromise, 
no yielding, nothing but the strong arm, until the glorious 
flag of the Union floats over every inch of the territory 
which belongs to the United States of America. 

For one, I trust that there may be no attempt at 
peace, and after remaining a few days here, I am ready 
11* 



250 PATRIOTIC AND HEROIC ELOQUENCE. 

to return to my duty, and never return to Lowell until 
the last time, or until the work is accomplished: We 
must have peace, but a peace in which the power of the 
government is acknowledged ; it must be a peace which 
secures the constitutional rights of all men under the 
Federal government, and no other government. With 
my fellow-soldiers, whom I have left for the hour, there 
is no other feeling ; and we have heard with pain and re- 
gret that there was any other feeling cherished even by 
a few. Why, sir, let us make a peace for the hour, and 
it would not be sixty days before we would be involved 
in war again, if the result of that peace was the separa- 
tion of this Union into two confederacies. We must 
have the whole of this country under one government, 
or else no government at all. There is no middle ground. 
We must pour out blood and treasure — the first like 
water, the last like sand — until that is accomplished. If 
you have no country, what have you left ? Nothing f 
We should be base to give up the rich inheritance be- 
queathed to us by our fathers, and leave to our children 
only a broken and ruined country. 

Mr. Mayor, I have been led into a digression from the 
more appropriate duty of the moment, to return to you 
my sincere thanks for this too great honor. I receive it, 
not for myself, but for the brave troops under my com- 
mand, and the gallant navy to whose exertions we are 
mainly to attribute the recent victory. I receive it for 
the gallant Commodore Stringham," and I would call 
your attention to the fact that he is a son of Massachu- 
setts, that a majority of his fleet was fitted out in Massa- 
chusetts, so that it was on the whole pretty much a Massa- 
chusetts enterprise. When we are abroad we do not 
echo that prayer with which all our official documents 
are closed, " God save the Commonwealth of Massachu- 
setts !" but say with fervor everywhere, " God bless the 
old Commonwealth !" 



PATRIOTIC AND HEROIC ELOQUENCE. 251 



A "War Poem — George Oroly. 

Tue Turkman lay beside the river; 

The wind played loose through bow and quiver ; 

The charger on the bank fed free, 

The shield hung glittering from the tree, 

The trumpet, shawn and atabal 

"Were hid from dew by cloak and pah, 

For long and weary was the way 

The hordes had marched that burning day. 

Above them, on the sky of June, 
Broad as a buckler glowed the moon — 
Flooding with glory, vale and hill. 
In silver sprang the mountain rill, 
The shrub in silver bent ; 
A pile of silver stood the tent ; 
All soundless, sweet tranqudlity — 
All beauty, hill, and tent, and tree. 

There came a sound — 'twas like the gush 
When night winds shake the r'ose's bush ! 
There came a sound — 'twas hke the tread 
Of wolves along the valley's bed ! 
There came a sound — 'twas like the roar 
Of ocean on its wintry shore. 

" Death to the Turk !" up rose the yell — 
On rolled the charge — a thunder peal ? 
The Tartar arrows feU like rain — 
They clanked on helm, and mail, and chain — 
In blood, in hate, in death, were twined 
Savage and Greek — mad — bleeding — blind — 
And still, on flank, and front, and rear, 
Raged, Constantine ! thy thirstiest spear ! 



d pale — a type of doom — 
Labored the moon through deep'ning gloom I 
Down plunged her orb — 'twas pitchy night ! 
Now, Turkman, turn thy reins for flight ! 
On rushed their thousands through the dark ! 
But in the camp a ruddy spark 



252 PATRIOTIC AND HEROIC ELOQUENCE. 

Like an uncertain meteor reeled — 

Thy hand, brave king, that firebrand wheeled ! 

Wild burst the burning element, 
O'er man and courser, flag and tent ! 
And, through the blaze the Greeks outsprang 
Like tigers, bloody — foot and fang ! — 
"With dagger's stab, and falchion's sweep, 
Delving the stunned and staggering heap — 
Till lay the slave, by chief and khan — 
And all was gone that once was man. 

A wailing on the Eusine shore — 
Her chivalry shall ride no more I 
There's wailing on thy hills, Altai ! 
For chiefs, the Grecian vulture's prey — 
But, Bosphorus I thy silver wave 
Hears shouts for the returning brave — 
The highest of her kingly fine — 
For there comes glorious Constantine ! 



The Constitution. — Oliver Bunce. 

By those laws of movement and development, which 
appertain to all periods, to all men, and to all things, 
constitutions cannot remain through successive gener- 
ations the same literal and rigid instruments. There is 
a necessary progress in intelligence, and an inevitable 
development of idea and necessity, with whose advanc- 
ing parallels constitutions must keep pace, if they re- 
spond to the needs, represent the liberties, and express 
the spirit of a people. Around the written form of 
organic law, history, circumstances, new necessities, asso- 
ciations, precedents, will gather and knit themselves into 
the very body of the organic word. New ideas will 
spring up and cling to it. New constructions will arise, 
be discussed, and eventually become its standard of inter- 



PATRIOTIC AND HEROIC ELOQUENCE. 253 

pretation. Xew applications of its laws will occur; and 
around its simplest provisions will gather precedents and 
expositions which will give them, under new conditions, 
new meanings. Hence, in studying our own constitution, 
we must consider it not only as it was, but as it is. In 
an age so rapid, and with a people so active in absorbing 
new ideas and in advancing to new relations, the constitu. 
tion has, of necessity, taken some color and some meaning 
from the events in our history. A union like our own 
cannot stand still, exactly poised between a nationality on 
one side and a diet of states on the other. It must neces- 
sarily move swiftly, where there is an earnest life in the 
community, either toward a more centralized and compact 
nationality, or toward a more segregated, divided, and 
conflicting federation. The march of events has deter- 
mined which. The full sense and real meaning of the 
union and the constitution are not what our organic in- 
strument then expressed, but what seventy years of 
history have made it. However poor or ineffectual may 
have been the union under the constitution in the begin- 
ning, however numerous may have been the checks and 
limitations proposed by states jealous of an untried and, 
as yet, unknown authority, the real strength, power, and 
attitude of the central government are now what events 
and necessities ordain. The union, indeed, never was 
a mere faggot of sticks loosely bound together, which 
any demagogue might untie, or any faction scatter. Or, 
if only a faggot of sticks, associations, identities of in- 
terests, intercommunication arising from commercial and 
social needs, friendships, family ties, literature, common 
founts of learning, a common history and common glo- 
ries, have knit and bound and banded part to part, each 
putting forth growths that interweave and intertwine 
among the rest, until the faggot of sticks is so clasped 
and locked and intergrown together, no one can be 
wrested away that does not ruthlessly drag with it some- 



254: PATRIOTIC AND HEROIC ELOQUENCE. 

thing rooted in each, of the rest, destroying and undoing 
all. A nation is made not by conventions, but by the 
operation of principles. A common soil, language, relig- 
ion, laws, literature, social customs, thoughts and aims, 
will make a nation without written constitutions ; and 
written instruments that attempt to band together parts 
not thus naturally wedded, will inevitably fail. We are 
a nation by the operation of principles that underlie all 
written law ; and we must advance year by year into a 
more firmly centralized, into a deeper and broader nation- 
ality by the vital growth and development of those 
principles, let the rigid and literal interpretations of any 
instrument point otherwise or not. But our constitution 
does not point otherwise. Its framers knew that we were 
a union already, that we were advancing into a national- 
ity, and thus gave legal form to that which necessities and 
circumstances were already enacting. There are results 
that spring with unfailing sequence from antecedents, 
unshaped and unguided by the will or the conscious aid 
of men. There are laws operating at the very heart of 
our civilization which determine nationality, and mark 
the course of empire. Constitutions must become plastic 
to the march of events ; and we shall not be required in 
the future of our government to bind ourselves to the 
rigid framework of a dead letter, which our needs 
and purposes have outgrown. We must guard, however, 
between a too rigid formalism on the one hand, and a 
too free interpretation on the other. The spirit of our 
constitution points to a nationality, aiming to unite all 
parts, to secure equality and liberty to all individuals, and 
to protect section against section. Let us strengthen 
that nationality by our habits of thought, by breadth of 
patriotism, by a suppression of local pride and sectional 
prejudices. Let us look at our banner, not to search out the 
star which represents the single state to which we belong, 
but to love and "accept the entire galaxy. Let us have 



PATRIOTIC AXI) IlEIMIC ELOQUENCE. 255 

done with the narrow claim of state sovereignty, remem- 
bering that there is hut one flag, which is for the whole ; 
but one constitution which unites us, e pluribus unum, not 
one of many, but all in one ; and let our pride, our hopes, 
our prayers, our sympathies and affections, as well as our 
ambitions and interests, make us a nation. 



Sangutnakia Canadensis. — Joel Benton. 
i. 

I know the patch where the waxen milk-white blossoms grow, 
On a pea-green palmate leaf by the woody slope of the hill, 

Close to the budding coppice, thick as an army of snow, 

And the May wind drifts their leaves in a heap by the silver rill. 

ii. 
I plucked a flower from its stem, lustrous and fair to see, 

One that had loitered late with a splendor for me to behold ; 
Saxifrage, coltsfoot, trilhum, rue and anemone, 

I bound in a quaint bouquet, with its central nimbus of gold. 



Lo, a color of red, of orange, a saffron stain 

Darkens my hand, and clings in a multiplied ragged scar ! 
" What if I had plucked the flower that was planted in pain, 
■ And bathed with scarlet blood my country in crimson war ?" 

IV. 

I thought : " parricide, traitor, perjurer, villain, knave, 

Prince of the rebels, striking at freedom's consummate flower ; 

You will carry a damning Macbeth stain to your grave 

That shall brighten the name of Arnold to history's latest hour.' 



256 patriotic and heroic eloquence. 

Extract from a Speech on the Extension of 
Slavery. — William Henry Fry. 

Rome never attained to the solid power assumed for 
her. She was rotten to the core at the time of Marias 
and Scylla, and declined thereafter. She lived more and 
more on the labor of slaves. The food of her people be- 
came worse and worse. The standard of wages steadily 
declined. The quality of agriculture, under slave-labor, 
regularly withered up as Cincinnati ceased to guide their 
ploughs. Ancient authors precisely represent the starva- 
tion of the slaves. Nero, who, just previous to his death, 
escaped from Rome and fled ten miles into the country, 
suffered desperate hunger before he could touch the black 
bread, the ordinary food of the slaves upon a so-consid- 
ered magnificent patrician estate. The rabble of Rome 
were fed on corn gained by annexations in Sicily, Egypt, 
and the Archipelago. Some two hundred thousand ruf- 
fians of this kind, gloating over death-struggles of gladia- 
tors in the huge murderings of the Coliseum — in ecstasies 
as the tragedies in that execrable arena grew thicker, 
with the map of hell on their faces, as they draggled in 
filth, gore, and beastliness, at the heels of some patrician 
annexationist, rich with the plunder of foreign nations — 
these were fed out of the public purse, the pillaged grana- 
ries and general agonies of whole peoples. . . . Leav- 
ing aside the ordinary fables of divine origin, which are 
common to all nations, we find Rome, at the earliest dates, 
a nation divided into patricians and plebeians, both of the 
same color, and capable of equal effort in arts and arms, yet 
the one born to command and the other to obey. This fact, 
to any mind not necessarily stolid or vicious, would alone 
shut out all these references to Rome. But there are 
others which are equally pregnant with meaning to the 
classical student. Around and about Rome were nations 



PATRIOTIC AND IIEROIC ELOQUENCE. 257 

enjoying what is even now considered no small degree 
of civilization. Among these stood Etruria, whence 
Rome derived her softening arts, whose origin is lost in 
the mazes of antiquity, but whose skill in the pursuits of 
the beautiful has come down to us in forms which live 
even in our own day, and are household words. The 
Pontine Marshes and the circumjacent country, now deal- 
ing death in every breeze, were at the time of early Ro- 
man history, occupied by forty towns and cities, flourish- 
ing and wealthy, according to the standards of those days. 
The conquest of these places by the Romans, and the cen- 
tralizing ferocities of Marius and Scylla, and the whole 
imperial line, blotted them out from the face of the earth, 
and a materialized jeremiad, a very stench of desolation, 
only remains to mark where once they stood. . . . 
The growth of Rome, which began by the assassination 
of every country near it, was continued by the same 
means. Eternally at war, eternally menacing the rest of 
the world, it was but one great camp. De Lolme charac- 
terizes Roman patriotism as the spirit of oppression and 
murder. Soon a Cincinnatus ceased to own a few acres, 
and, the fight ended, to return to the plough. The great 
patrician, with sometimes four hundred slaves under his 
domestic roof; these four hundred, all white men above 
caricature in color, form, or brain, were crucified at one 
time for the single so-called crime of one of them. Such 
were the inevitable results of the Roman policy. 



Revolutionary Story. — Alice Gary. 

" Good mother, what quaint legend are you reading, 

In that old-fashioned book ? 
Beside your door I've been this half hour pleading 
All vainly for one look. 



258 PATRIOTIC AND HEROIC ELOQUENCE. 

" About your chair the little birds fly bolder 

Than in the woods they fly, 
With heads dropt slantwise, as if o'er your shoulder 
They read as they went by ; 

"Each with his glossy collar ruffling double 

Around his neck so slim, 
Even as with that atmosphere of trouble, 
Through which our blessings swim. 

" Is it that years throw on us chillier shadows, 

The longer time they run, 
That, with your sad face fronting yonder meadows, 
Tou creep into the sun ? 

"I'll sit upon the ground and hear your story." 
Sadly she shook her head, 
And pushing back the thin white veil of glory 
'Twixt her and heaven, she said: 

"Ah! wondering child, I know not of your pleading — 

My thoughts were chained, indeed, 
Upon my book, and yet what you call reading 
I have no skill to read. 

" There was a time once when I had a lover ; 
"Why look you in such doubt ? 
True, I am old now — ninety years and over" — 
A crumpled flower fell out 

From 'twist the book-leaves. ' ' Seventy years they've pressed it : 

'Twas hke a living flame, 
When he that plucked it, by the plucking blessed it." 

I knew the smile that came, 

And flickered on her lips in wannish splendor, 

Was lighted at that flower, 
For even yet its radiance, faint and tender, 

Reached to its primal hour. 

"God bless you ! seventy years since it was gathered?" 

" Aye, I remember well ;" 
And in her old hand, palsy-struck, and withered, 
She held it up to smell. 



PATRIOTIC AND HEROIC ELOQUEN* E. 

"And is it true, as poets say, good mother, 

That love can never die ? 
And that for all it gives unto another 
It grows the richer?" " Aye, 

"The homely brier from spring till summer closes, 

All the great world around, 
Hangs by its thorny arms to keep its roses 
From off the low, black ground ; 

" And love is like it — sufferings but try it, 

Death but evokes the might 
That, all too mighty to be thwarted by it, 
Breaks through into the light." 

" Then frosty age may wrap about its bosom 

The light of fires long dead ?" 
Kissing the piece of dust she called a blossom, 
She shut the book, and said: 

"You see yon ash-tree with its thick leaves, blowing 

The blue side out ? (Great Power, 
Keep its head green 1) My sweetheart, in the mowing, 
Beneath it found my flower. 

"A mile off all that day the shots were flying, 

And mothers, from the door, 
Looked for the sons, who, on their faces lying, 
"Would come home never more. 

Across the battle-field the dogs went whining ; 

I saw, from where I stood, 
Horses with quivering flanks, and strained eyes, shining 

Like thin skins full of blood. 

"Brave fellows we had then: there was my neighbor — 

The British lines he saw; 
Took Ms old scythe and ground it to a sabre, 
And mowed them down like straw I 

" And there were women then, of giant spirit — 

Kay, though the blushes start, 
The garments their degenerate race inherit, 
Hang loose about the heart. 



260 PATRIOTIC AND HEROIC ELOQUENCE. 

"Where was I, child ? how is my story going?" 

" Why, where by yonder tree 
With leaves so rough, your sweetheart, in the mowing, 
Gathered your flower I" "Ah me ! 

" My poor lad dreamed not of the red-coat devil 
That just for pastime drew 
To his bright epaulet, his musket level, 

And shot him through and through. 

" Beside him I was kneeling the next minute — 

Erom the red grass he took 
The shattered hand up, and the flower was in it 
Tou saw within my book. 

"He died." "Then you have seen some stormy weather?' 

"Aye, more of foul than fair; 
And all the snows we should have shared together, 
Have fallen on my hair." 

" And has your life been worth the living, mother, 

With all its sorrows?" "Aye, 
I'd live it o'er again, were there no other, 
For this one memory." 

I answered soft — I felt the place was holy — 

One maxim stands approved : 

"They know the best of life, however lowly, 

Who ever have been loved." 



Yoice of the Northern Women. — Phebe Gary. 

Rouse, freemen, the foemen has risen, 

His hosts are abroad on the plain ; 
And, under the stars of your banner, 

Swear never to strike it again ! 

0, fathers, who sit with your children, 

Would you leave them a land that is free ? — 

Turn now from their tender caresses, 
And put them away from your knee. 



PATRIOTIC AND liEKOIC ELOQUENCE. 261 

0, brothers wo played with in childhood 
On the hills where the clover bloomed sweet, 

See to it, that never a traitor 

Shall trample them under his feot. 

0, lovers, awake to your duty 

From visions that fancy has nursed ; 
Look not in the eyes that would keep you, 

Our country has need of you first. 

And we, whom your lives have made blessed, 

Will pray for your souls in the fight ; 
That you may be strong to do battle, 

For freedom, for God, and the right. 

We are daughters of men who were heroes, 

We can smile as we bid you depart; 
But never a coward or traitor 

Shall have room for a place in our heart. 

Then quit you like men, in the conflict, 

Who fight for their home and their land; 
Smite deep in the name of Jehovah, 

And conquer, or die where you stand I 



Injustice of Secession. — President Lincoln. 

Whatevek concerns the whole should be confined to 
the whole general government, while whatever concerns 
only the state should be left exclusively to the state. 

This is all there is of original principle about it. 
Whether the national constitution, in defining bounda- 
ries between the two, has applied the principle with ex- 
act accuracy, is not to be questioned. We are all bound, 
by that defining without question. What is now combat- 
ed is the position that secession is consistent with the 
constitution — is lawful, is peaceful. It is not contended 
that there is any express law for it, and nothing should 
ever be implied as law which leads to unjust or absurd 



262 PATRIOTIC AND HEKOIC ELOQUENCE. 

consequences. The nation purchased with money the 
countries of which several of these states were formed. 
Is it just they should go off without leave and without 
refunding ? The nation paid very large sums, in the ag. 
gregate — I believe nearly a hundred millions — to relieve 
Florida of the aboriginal tribes. Is it just that she 
should be off without any return ? The nation is now in 
debt for money applied to the benefit of these so-called se- 
ceding states, in common with the rest. Is it just either 
that creditors shall go unpaid, or the remaining states 
pay the whole ? A part of the present national debt was 
contracted to pay the old debts of Texas. Is it just that 
she shall leave and pay no part of this herself? Again, 
if one state may secede so may another ; and when all 
shall have seceded, none is left to pay the debts. Is this 
quite just to creditors ? Did we notify them of this sage 
view of ours when we borrowed their money ? If we 
now recognize this doctrine by allowing the seceders to 
go in peace, it is difficult to see what we can do if others 
choose to go or to extort terms upon which they will 
promise to remain. 

The seceders insist that our constitution admits of se- 
cession. They have assumed to make a national consti- 
tution of their own, in which, of necessity, they have 
either discarded or retained the right of secession, as they 
insist it exists in ours. If they have discarded it, they 
thereby admit that, on principle, it ought not to exist in 
ours ; if they have retained it, by their own construction 
of ours, that shows that, to be consistent, they must se- 
cede from one another whenever they shall find it the 
easiest way of settling their debts, or effecting any other 
selfish or unjust object. 

The principle itself is one of disintegration, and upon 
which no government can possibly endure. 



PATRIOTIC AND HKKOIC ELOQUENCE. 263 



L'ENVOI. 



A Psalm of the Union.* — William Ross Wallace. 

DEDICATED TO THE HON. HIRAM BARNEY. 



God of the Free ! upon Thy breath 
Our flag is for the Eight unrolled 
Still broad and brave, as when its stars 

First crowned the hallowed days of old : 
For Honor still their folds shall fly, 
For Duty still their glories burn, 
Where Truth, Religion, Freedom, guard 
The patriot's sword and martyr's urn : 
Chorus — Then sliout beside thine Oak, North ! 

South, ivave answer with thy Palm ! 
And, in our Union's heritage, 
Together lift the Nation's psalm ! 

II. 

How glorious is our mission here ! 
Heirs of a virgin world are we ; 
The chartered lords whose lightnings tame 

The rocky mount and roaring sea: 
"We march — and Nature's giants own 

The fetters of our mighty cars : 
"We look — and lo, a continent 

Is crouched beneath the Stripes and Stars ! 
Chords — Then shout beside thine Oak, North ! 

South, loave answer with thy Palm! 
And, in our Union's heritage, 
Together lift the Nation's psalm ! 

* Air— Old Hundred. 



264 PATRIOTIC AND HEROIC ELOQUENCE. 

in. 
No tyrant's impious step is ours ; 

No lust of power on nations rolled ; 
Our Flag — for friends a starry sky, 

For foes, a tempest every fold ! 
Oh thus we'll keep our Nation's life, 

Nor fear the bolt by despots hurled : 
The blood of aU the world is here, 
And they who strike us, strike the world 1 
Chorus — Then shout beside thine Oak, North ? 

South, wave answer with thy Palm ! 
And, in our Union's heritage, 
Together lift the Nation's psalm I 

rv. 
God of the Free ! our Nation bless 

In its strong manhood as its birth, 
And make its life a star of hope 

For all the struggling of the earth. 
Thou gav'st the glorious Past to us ; 
Oh let our Present burn as bright, 
And o'er the mighty Future cast 

Truth's, Honor's, Freedom's holy light! 
Chorus — Then shout beside thine Oak, North ! 

South, wave ansiver with thy Palm! 
And, in our Union's heritage, 
Together lift the Nation's psalm ! 



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